


Critical Playthrough

by Slowregard



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Abusive Parents, Based On a D&D Game, Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Death, Crimes & Criminals, Critical Role Spoilers, D&D Backstory, Emotional Manipulation, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Major Original Character(s), Multi, Organized Crime, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, POV Original Character, Pirates, Self-Insert, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-08
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2019-11-14 01:47:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 46,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18043145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Slowregard/pseuds/Slowregard
Summary: What happens when a Critter with no prior knowledge about Campaign 2 rolls up a character and a backstory? Time for the Mighty Nein to have a new member! Starting from the very beginning, all decisions are up to the dice. "It's your turn to roll!"





	1. Curious Beginnings - Part 1

**Author's Note:**

> Critical Playthrough - How it Works: I created a character and backstory with no prior knowledge of the arcs of Campaign 2. I have only seen the first 5 episodes in its entirety before the idea came to mind. I roll my dice and use my character sheet to try and figure out what would have happened--and changed--if my character joined in on Critical Role! Will be trying to update weekly.

_Trostenwald. Here in this sleepy trade stop along the Amber Road, a handful of wandering  
destinies slowly begin to intersect._

I stared across the table at my temporary companions.

The blue Tiefling seated to the left of me, Jester, was unknowingly swishing her tail back and forth, excited for our upcoming meal. Fjord--the half-Orc--was across the table, looking around to watch the waitress’ movements so he could flag her down. And Beau, on my right, was preoccupied, following Jester’s tail with her eyes, no doubt bored. She seemed to be over any situation that wasn’t fighting—in the day I’d known her, the happiest she’d looked was when we were killing the serpent.

I was relieved to get a long night’s sleep after that fight. It hadn’t been something I’d planned on, killing a serpent with a group of strangers, but we were the only ones who had stepped up when an older man ran ragged through the docks screaming for someone to help his daughter.

Speaking of, the same Fisherman now stood meekly by our table, clutching his hat in his hands.

“I thank you for your time. Fjord. And, I apologize, I forget your names…?” I wasn’t offended that he didn’t remember us, having talked to Fjord the most. He was a good talker, while Beau and I struggled a bit more and Jester could be overwhelming.

“Beauregard.”

“Serasai.”

“Jester.”

 “Jester,” He repeated, trying to commit the names to memory, “Thank you. You all came when no one else would yesterday, and because of you my daughter is still alive.”

I felt a surge of pride. Before I could speak--

“Oh yeah. Sorry for being a pessimistic asshole, by the way, when we three first came into town.” Beau gestured to the trio. She wasn’t wrong.

“Oh, that’s okay.” He waved it off.

“I’m not used to things turning out…good.”

“You’ll do well this side of the Empire.” He chuckled, weakly. “Anyway. I won’t keep you, but I– we spoke yesterday, and I didn’t have much to give you. Sent you away with nothing but my gratitude. But I’ve been asking around the other fishermen, lochsmen, and we’ve put together a little bit of coin for your troubles, so.” I watched him turn his cap over the table and empty out a pile of copper and silver, with a few bits of gold catching my eye. The noise of it spilling onto the table caught the attention of the rest of the tavern, and all eyes were on us. Once he noticed, he looked sheepish, and quickly put his cap back on and pushed the pile towards us.

Jester’s eyes lit up most notably as she gaped at the pile.

“I hope it’s helpful. But thank you.” He bowed his head a little, awkwardly.

“Yeah, yeah.” Beau reaches out for the pile before stopping abruptly. “--Oh wait.”

“We can’t accept this, right? I mean, it’s too much.” Fjord said.

“We’re supposed to at least say that, right? And then still accept it, right?” She asked, looking hopeful.

“I think you’re supposed to do it if you say it.”

“Although the person giving it typically tells you to take it anyway.” I added, amused. Jester looked between the three of us, trying to think of an out.

“Well, I mean, he did go around to a bunch of people. That was a lot of work on his part. I would hate to make him go back to all of those people and give it back to each individual person.” Jester reasoned.

“If he didn’t keep a ledger, you know. We wouldn’t want to do that. It’s rude not to accept a gift, right? It’s rude not to accept a gift, right?” Beau turned to ask Rinaldo.

“I would hope that is the case. Anyway. Thank you very much. I am sorry for getting in your way.” Rinaldo began to scurry away, obviously still uncomfortable being watched by the other tavern patrons.

“No trouble at all!” I called after him.

“DIVIDE IT UP.” I jumped at the sudden outburst from Jester.

“Okay, okay!”

Beau began counting out the coins, immediately handing us each a gold piece. The trouble came when she got to the silver.

“How do you divide 22 by four!?”

I snickered, but watched carefully to make sure she didn’t stiff me any of the money.

“That’s creepy. Fucking disgusting.” I looked up to Fjord, confused, and he turned back to the table. “I think we have people watching us.” I followed his gaze to the table next to us and reeled back a little as a small hooded halfling was staring us down with wild eyes.

“Who is watching us?” Jester asked. I used my head to point to the other table. “Is something wrong with your neck?”

I sighed.

“She was telling you to look over there.” Fjord explained. The Halfling had stopped leaning towards us and seemed to be in deep discussion with the man sitting across from him. They both looked worse for wear, covered in dirt, likely travelers passing through. Underneath all the dust and heavy-set coat, the man looked quite handsome. The Halfling was covered in too much cloth to make out much about their appearance.

“Are you guys staying here!?” The now-familiar accent broke me out of my thoughts as I saw Jester practically inches away from the strangers. They looked completely startled.

“Don’t move. Don’t move.” A squeaky voice came from under the Halfling’s hood, “Tieflings can only see movement.”

“I don’t think that’s true—"

“It’s very true, we have a hard time seeing things that aren’t moving, it’s very true.” Jester claimed, nodding. “But I can hear you. You should take a bath! You know they have showers here, it’s possible.”

I broke, silently laughing in my chair as this took place.

“A what now?” The man asked.

“You bathe yourself in water.”

“No, I’ve bathed before, yeah, _I know what a_ _bath is_.”

“It’s because you smell really bad, and it’s wafting over this direction. I’m just letting you know. I would hate if I smelled that bad and someone didn’t tell me.”

I had thought the smell of dirt was from the tavern floor but now I was questioning if I was wrong.

The man stared blankly at Jester, jaw slack.

“I’ve only just met you.”

“Hi! I’m Jester.” Jester held out her hand excitedly to shake. Gingerly, he took it.

“Hi, I’m Caleb.”

“Nice to meet you, Caleb.” Abruptly, towards Beau and I, “How much silver did I just get!?”

“Five!”

“WOO!”

I jumped again at the shout, pocketing the money Beau pushed my way.

“And twelve copper! Aren’t you all jealous?” Beau stared down this poor table that had been dragged into our midst by Jester.

“Morning.” The Halfling girl muttered, meekly.

“Morning.” Beau nodded.

Now that I was looking at the girl…she had a mask covering half of her face—white porcelain with red lips painted on. The skin showing was green, and I wondered for a split second if she was ill before I realized she wasn’t a Halfling at all.

I watched, bothered for a second by what I had figured out, eyes darting to Caleb. He seemed close to the girl—I thought it was a girl—despite having to be aware of what she was. It was out of place, but clearly a human trusted her. I doubted either were a threat in a busy tavern.

Beau and the Goblin began speaking in a language I could tell was Halfling, but I couldn’t understand.

“You’re being mighty fucking friendly. They were looking at our coin.” We looked over to Fjord.

“Why can’t they have been looking at me? Maybe they were looking at me.” Beau argued.

“I didn’t think of that.” Fjord admitted.

“Maybe they were looking at Serasai. Maybe they were looking at you. As Jester  
said, you’re handsome.”

“Just—”

“Yes?” Jester turned immediately back to Caleb.

“Nott—”

“He said ‘Just’.” The Goblin explained.

“I just thought he said my name, is all.” Jester explained. I sat back in my chair, idly wondering what time it is and if I should leave this group now or later.

The waitress made her way to our tables, dropping Trosts at the adjacent one before turning to us.  

“Would you like anything as well?” The trio ordered quickly, and the waitress looked to me.

“And for you?” She asked.

“I’ll have what she’s having.” I pointed to Beau with my thumb. The waitress nodded.

“Right, I’ll be right back.”

I zoned out a bit, playing with a copper piece. The bronze coin cast a faint light against my hand as I twirled it. I paused when I heard Caleb raise his voice.

“I mean, I’m sorry, not to be blunt, but, you know. It’s pretty obvious goblins are not welcome strolling about.”

“She’s a goblin!?”

“Yeah, yeah, but you don’t have to make a big thing of it, all right? There could be people here who don’t know.”

“I mean you just announced it.” I murmured. I felt someone looking and turned to see Caleb staring me down. I put my hands up in faux-surrender. “Just saying.”

“She’s my companion, she’s my friend. There’s nothing to make a big deal about. That’s why she’s wrapped up. Just leave it, please.” He continued.

“I didn’t ask why she was wrapped up.”

“I know, we’re not making a big deal out it. _You’re_ making a big deal out of it.”

The squabble continued and the waitress came back with our food. Fjord and I thanked her, and began to dig in, followed by Jester and Beau not long after.

In the middle of eating, there was a sudden commotion at the door of the tavern. I looked up to see two figures walking in, sticking out even more than our group did--which was an impressive accomplishment. My eyes fell on another Tiefling, moving with grace through the crowded room. Lavender skin and pure red eyes, as they neared us I could hear the piercings, jewels, and baubles adorning their horns jingle. They were dressed in ostentatious, colorful robes, not even trying to conceal the striking looking blades hanging from the belt at their hip.

Following a step behind was a larger woman with skin even paler than my own. Her hair was wild, matted and braided black that faded to white at the tips. Her eyes were different colors. She seemed to be standing guard over the Tiefling as they made their way from table to table.

I leaned toward Beau, “Don’t move. Tieflings can only see movement.”

I felt rather than saw the approaching Tiefling’s eyes dart to the copper coin still resting on the table by my hand. In half a second, his eyes met mine and moved to quickly scan over our group.

“Well. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a group of people more in need of a good time in my entire life!” He declared. He reached a hand out for mine, to shake. With a firm, quick shake, he made his way around shaking everyone’s hands at our table. “Mollymauk Tealeaf of the Fletching and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities.” He introduced. I perked up at the word “carnival”, having always wanted to go to one.

“If there was ever a group of people that needed a good time to go out, have a laugh, see things that you have never seen before, and my god, take my word for it, one month’s time, people will be buying your ale to hear the tale of what you saw at the Traveling Carnival of Curiosities this night.” They didn’t seem to stop to breathe; they sounded like an old friend giving advice while at the same time I was highly aware they wanted me to buy something. Perhaps it was because I already wanted to go to the carnival, but I found that I didn’t mind their sales pitch.

“We saw your tent going up! We did!” Jester said, giddily.

“We were actually going to go without the flyer, but now we also have a flyer.” Beau held it up. I put a hand out, and she handed it off to me.

“Well, I don’t think I’d joined up with you yet when you saw the tent, so I didn’t even know it was in town. We should go together.” I directed the comment at Jester, knowing she’d say yes.

“Yes! We should all go!” Jester cheered, clapping.

“Excellent! It’s just five copper. A steal. At five silver, it would be a steal--at five gold? Worth every penny. But if you’ve got the five copper to spend, we would happily have you all.” Having already won us over with the carnival’s mere existence, I couldn’t help but chuckle at the sales-pitch.

“Do you perform?” Jester asked, stars for eyes.

“Ah. I’m less of a performer and more of an intermediary for these parts. I do on occasion perform. I can read fortunes–“ Jester’s loud gasp interrupted him.

“I was going to ask if you read fortunes! Can you do one now?”

“I _knew you were going to ask that.”_

My shoulders shook with silent laughter at the sight of Jester completely taken in by this silver-tongued performer. But she was happy, so I stayed silent.

“May I bring up a chair?”

“Have mine, for the moment.” Fjord insisted, standing.

“Thank you very much!” The purple Tiefling slid into his seat, across from me, and turned to Jester. I heard the woman who had come in with the fortuneteller order a drink. I took my copper and continued playing with it, twirling it around my fingers as Jester introduced herself and asked for his name again.

“Oh, my name is Molly to my friends, and we’re friends, now, aren’t we? Pleasure.”

“Look at this guy!” Jester nudged me with her elbow. He smiled at me, red eyes alight.

“Mollymauk. Molly for short. This is Yasha, she’s a charm.” He gestured to the woman standing guard.

“Hello.”

“Good to meet you.” I greeted back, having to look directly up from where I was sitting to face her.

“Now. Would anyone like a fortune read?” Molly asked, holding out his deck.

“I would love one.” Jester said.

“I’ll take one, after Jester.” I decided.

“Do you have coin?” He asked.

“Yes. How much do you want?”

“How much _is it_ , she means.” I corrected, despite being unconcerned about the cost. He couldn’t charge more than the actual show, which was only five.

“Two copper.”

“Two copper, okay, I just got some copper. Here you go.” Jester dug through her coin purse and handed hers over.

He took it, smiling his thanks, and held his hand out to me. Beau leaned over to me before I could pass him the coins.

“You know this is bullshit, right?” She murmured, quietly.

“Yeah, but it’s fun bullshit.”

I placed the coins in Molly’s hands. If he’d heard us, he didn’t let on. I appreciated Beau trying to watch out for me, considering how we didn’t know each other that well.

The two Tieflings chatted as Molly shuffled. He kept the conversation light, but I figured he was trying to get a read on her. I didn’t want to go so far as to doubt he had magic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew how to work a deck of cards, and let his smooth talking do the rest.

“He’s really quite good, you all should line up and get your fortunes told.” Yasha said, in a complete deadpan, convincing no one.

With a flourish, Molly pulled the first card.

“Your first card, the Silver Dragon. This is good. You’re pure, you’re virtue, you are a worthwhile and wonderful human being, obviously, or creature of some repute.”

“That’s what everyone always tells me.”

I shook my head fondly.

“It’s true. And heading towards the Anvil—”

“What’s that?”

“That’s destiny forged.”

“Oohh.” Yasha deadpanned again.

“There is something bright and adventurous in your future.”

“Wow! You know, we did just defeat a really big snake? So maybe there’s even bigger things coming up, you know?” Jester said, practically bouncing in her seat.

“Of course you did.” Molly flipped the next card to reveal a Serpent. My eyes widened. I had been watching his hands the whole time—either he was for real, or he was _damn_ good at this.

“Oh my gosh! Look at that! How did you even do that!?”

“That’s all the cards. I’m simply a vessel for higher powers.”

That’s when I knew he was bullshitting us, but I was still no less impressed. Jester leaned in closer.

“Will you ask the cards if I’m going to find him?”

“If you’re going to find her?”

“Him.” She corrected.

“Give me a little bit more. Who’s this 'him’ that you’re looking for?”

“I’m looking for my dad.” She didn’t seem at all upset when she said it, just determined. Molly shuffled a little and pulled a card with a large eye on it.

“You’ve already found the clue you’re looking for. You just don’t know what it is yet.”

“Really?” Jester looked on, hopefully.

“Apparently. Well, it’s what the cards are saying. It’s right in front of you.” Jester nodded.

“Wow. Does it say how long ago I found it? Because that’s–“

“Sadly, I don’t have that sort of specifics. That’s much more expensive.” I barely contained a snort, covering it with a cough. “And of course, it’s time for your friend’s fortune!  But you find us at the show, you’ll find my tent and I’d be happy to give you a more complicated reading.”

“I can’t wait! It’s going to be so much fun.”

“So much fun.” Molly echoed, shooting me a wink. I couldn’t help an expression of surprise at the quick flirt, but recovered and squared-up for my reading.

“And your name, dear?”

“Serasai.”

“Serasai, never heard that one. Beautiful! Elvish?”

“Yep.”

“Simply darling. Now, we’ll do a classic read, then. Past, present, future, sound good?” I nodded. “Wonderful. Tell me a little bit about yourself while I shuffle.”

“Well, I’m traveling around to see the world. Like Jester said, we all fought a serpent the other day, that’s how I met up with them. Looking forward to the carnival, I’ve never been to one before.”

“Oh well you’ll love it! I will say, it is so utterly spectacular, all other carnivals will pale in comparison from here on out--but it’ll be worth every moment.” I watched him shuffle, wondering if I could catch him pulling any sleight of hand moves this time around. “I don’t want to spoil any surprises, or I’d tell you all about my favorite acts. Have you ever been to the menagerie coast? We’re sometimes compared to the higher class street performers found there, the world famous ones—nearly as famous as our carnival.”

“I go frequently.” I admitted.

“Beautiful area. It takes a while to shuffle between readings, please pay it no mind. Have to realign the energies.”

“Of course.” I said, smiling at how ridiculous this was and not believing a word of it.

“Did you go with anyone? Friends, family?”

“No.” I said quickly.

“A lover?” Molly asked, pointedly ignoring my reaction to the word ‘family’.

“No.” I laughed, looking away from him for the first time. “Mostly went for work.”

“A performer yourself?”

“No. I’m a bit of an alchemist.” I admitted.

“She was so cool fighting the serpent with her vials of fire like WHAM WHAM!” Jester interrupted, mimicking vicious throws.

“I can practically see it! You, standing amongst flames. You’re glowing now, I can only imagine what you’d be like by firelight. _Luminous_.” I couldn’t help a laugh, thrown by the flattery.

“First card, the past. The Tower.” Any good humor drained from me immediately. “Does this mean anything to you?”

“Maybe. What does it mean?” My voice sounded more like Yasha’s than my own—void of emotion.

“Solitude, locking yourself away or part of you away. Perhaps your past of traveling without companions.” As Molly spoke I was able to calm myself down. His reading of the card was not what I’d expected. It was likely a terrifying coincidence.

“Makes sense.” I pushed some intonation in, embarrassed now that I could see the concern on Jester’s face, and even Molly’s--a _stranger’s_. I was grateful that Beau and Fjord seemed to be paying no mind as they spoke to Yasha about her role in the carnival. “Sorry, the castle looks uncannily like a place I’ve been before, this art is incredible.” I rambled, looking over the card. The castle walls didn’t look a thing like the ones I’d known, but the lie seemed to hold up, and Molly pressed forward.

“I’m quite fond of them myself, I like the gold edges.” He gestured flippantly to the deck, eyes not wavering from mine. He leaned forward. “But that was your past card. That solitude is behind you, it’s over. You’ve moved past it and never have to go back to it.” My hands clenched into fists under the table.

“Your present, The Wave. A sense of going with the flow is just what you need right now, or a visit to a body of water. Going back to Menagerie Coast for some pleasure, perhaps, instead of business? Or attending a lakeside carnival?”

“The serpent came from the water!” Jester interrupted again.

“My gods that could be it!” Molly agreed, overdramatically. With the two of them bouncing off each other, I felt much more at ease, chuckling. “And in your future…”

He laid down a card depicting a woman that looked vaguely like myself, at first glance. Unsurprising as I matched the pale, light blonde, long-hair stereotype of Elves—although looking closer at the card, her hair had a light green tint to it. She was playing a violin, and sparks were falling from it made up of small balls of fire and small hearts.

“The Spark.”

“WOAH.”

“Jester.” I said, kindly asking her to move as she had leaned over the entire table in awe.

“Sorry!”

“It’s okay.”

“Certainly depicting your affinity with fire, but the focus of the Spark card is that a spark of love resides in your future.”

We’re ending with a _love fortune?_

I laughed to myself at how scared I had gotten when he pulled The Tower. It wasn’t fate, he was making these cards dance somehow, or I’d gotten unlucky. If I’d stopped to think, from what little I knew of tarot cards I would have remembered The Tower is a classic card.

“A spark of love, you say?” I asked, amused.

“Oh you may laugh now, most do. But it’s hardly unheard of for love to spring upon one when they least expect it.”

“Very true.” I agreed, not willing to get into an argument over a couple of cards. “Well, I’ll admit, the Tower card was very accurate. That was good. You’re very good at this.”

Molly took the compliment with another flourished bow, this time standing.

“As I told your friend, it’s all in the cards. If you’d like to further explore that Tower card, or even your Spark of love, I’ll be at the Fletchling and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities!”

“Speaking of, is there a reason why it says 'No admittance to the elderly’?” Beau asked, holding up the flier. “You don’t want to deal with those riley elderly. Or the ill, yeah. Why no elderly, though? Ill kind of makes sense, but _elderly?”_

“We cannot be held responsible for anything that may happen to someone who is ill or infirm. It is such an exciting, impressive show.” He said, gesturing to the chair for Fjord, who sat down as Molly pushed the chair in.

“We’ve had people die watching it.” Yasha said. “Yeah. It’s just that exciting. Just from excitement.”

“Did they die in the show, or from watching it?” Fjord asked.

“Yeah, just like heart attack. Just from getting so excited, I guess.”

Beau turned excitedly to Fjord and me.

“We gotta get _so_ _wasted.”_

“When is it? How long is it? When is it?” Jester asked, bouncing.

“First show is tonight.” Molly said.

“Well, we have plans tonight!” Jester cheered.

“Sounds good.” I said, flagging down the waitress for an ale. Jester whipped back around to the table we’d been bothering earlier.

“Do you stinky people want to come with us?”

“I– Caleb, we don’t have any plans tonight.” The Goblin pointed out. Caleb looked at her, a small smile—the first time I’d seen him smile at all—coming across his face at the Goblin’s barely concealed excitement.

“I guess we could go along. I wouldn’t mind seeing it.”

“It’ll be fun!” Beau added. Molly nodded.

“Or you could stay here and buy beer for the people who _do_ see the shows, and you can hear all about it and pay more.” I made a face, amused by the twisted logic.

“Yeah, we can go.” Caleb nodded. Jester let out a little squeal.

“It’s going to be so much fun!”

“Yeah, yeah, it sounds like a good night. Yeah.” The Goblin girl nodded. Jester sighed, smiling.

“Look at all these friends we’re making here. This is a good city.” A few of us in the group agreed.  

“You are all the most charming people I’ve met in–yes.” I watched Mollymauk take an ale from Yasha and down it. I was moderately impressed by the speed. “Well, we’d better be getting on.”

“Yep, nice to meet you all. You’re so, uh, wonderful.” Yasha said, seeming to attempt to imitate Molly. Molly patted her on the arm, grinning.

“Charm. Pure charm. See you tonight!”

Yasha followed Molly’s lead in downing her ale, slamming it down on Caleb’s table. The two carnies made their way towards the exit, dropping a few more flyers off with the pub patrons as they went.  

“She was awesome.” Beau said, leaning back and looking a little winded.

“She didn’t say much.” Fjord commented. Beau nodded.

“That’s why I liked her.”

“She was really, really cool. Did you see that cool thing she had going on with her chin? That’s interesting. I wish I would have thought of something like that.” Jester said, sighing dreamily.

“Yeah, I mean, you could maybe do something like that in time. Just wait until maybe–“

“So she doesn’t know I copied. I can’t do it tonight.”

“No, no.” Beau shook her head. Jester took a breath and settled herself.

“Wow. Cool. What do you guys want to do now?”

Something about the question broke the air, and our table started laughing.

“Was he using magic?” Fjord asked, pointing to the exit where the carnies had gone.

“I don’t know.”

“I was watching his hands. If he wasn’t, he’s _damn_ good.” I admitted.

“Are you– “ Beau turned to Jester, narrowing her eyes. “--You’re superstitious. Yeah?”

“No.”

“…Okay.”

“No, I’m not superstitious at all.” I raised a brow at that. Beau looked equally puzzled, and opened her mouth to argue.

“You– sure.” She immediately gave up.

“Why?”

“I mean, what he was working in was– he was doing a little like– he– he’s a smart guy. He’s a smart guy.”

And very convincing. Naturally easy to talk to, clearly a born performer, quite attractive…I had a niggling sense that if he tried hard enough he could get me to buy into just about anything. I knew the type.

“Keep me away from him if we see him at the carnival. I don’t want to buy anything else.” I half-joked. Beau chuckled.

“Don’t want to know about your _Spark of Love_ waiting around the corner? Or waiting in the fortune teller’s tent?”

“What? _Pass_.” I laughed at the idea.

“C’mon! He was flirting with you!” She grinned.

“And he also looked at Fjord’s ass when he pushed in his chair so I’m not gonna put much stock in that.”

“What?”

The three of us girls laughed at Fjord’s surprise.

“Also, for the record, there was nothing magic about that. Maybe he’s good at reading people, but that was not magic.” We turned at the sound of Caleb’s voice.

“Caleb knows everything about magic. He’s been even teaching me some. He’s real good. You should see him–“ The Goblin said.

“Nott.” Caleb warned, and I realized that was the Goblin’s name.

“Caleb, are you going to go the Academy?” Jester asked. He gave a shaky laugh.

“That’s silly.”

“He could if he wanted to. He’s really good at magic. He can make a cat appear and disappear whenever he wants.” Nott bragged.

“Really? A cat?” Jester’s head tilted. Caleb snapped his fingers, and from beneath their table an orange tabby cat emerged with a quiet meow.

“Oh shit! What’s his name?” Beau said, all her attention immediately on the cat.

“Or her name!” Jester added.

“Well, it is a he.” Caleb explained, “This is my cat Frumpkin.”

“That’s not all he can do. Caleb, tell them all the stuff you can do. It’s really impressive!” It was clear that Nott was incredibly proud of Caleb and his magic.

 “You know, sometimes less is more.” Caleb said.

“I can do things, too.” Jester piped up.

“With magic?” Nott asked, wide-eyed.

“Yeah.”

“Like what?”

“ Like–“

 _“Not to me, not to me!”_ Nott cowered back as Jester seemed to wind-up to pitch a spell.

A huge gust of wind slammed the nearby windows open, and the candles surrounding us dimmed and flickered, plunging the tavern into dim shadows. The music stopped at the sudden change, and everyone in the tavern turned to look at us once again.

“Jester, don’t you remember us talking about keeping a low profile?” Fjord murmured, easily heard in the now-silent tavern.

“You’re right. I’m sorry.” She apologized. I thought she got the point until all the windows slammed shut just as suddenly as they had opened. The candles slowly flickered back to life.

“Ta-da!” She posed. Beau cheered, seemingly oblivious to the accusing looks we were still receiving.

“Come see me tonight at the carnival! I’m really good!”

I snorted, shaking with silent laughter as I heard a single person slow-clapping across the tavern floor. Frumpkin ran under my chair and hopped onto Beau’s lap.

“Hey, buddy. Look at this kitty! I think he likes me.” Beau cooed at him, petting him immediately.

“Sure, right now he likes you.” Caleb muttered flippantly.

“Is this a real cat? Or is this a fake cat?” Beau asked.

“What do you mean, a fake cat?”

“Like a magic cat.”

“He’s both a real cat and a magic cat.” Caleb said, seemingly miffed by the question.

“Like an actual cat, I think she meant, and not a different creature? Like a fey disguised as a cat.” I tried to explain.

“He’s a _cat_.”

I backed off, taking a drink from my ale.

“Could you put him over there?” Fjord’s face was scrunched up, looking like he was about to sneeze.

“Are you allergic to Frumpkin? Oh no!” Beau realized. Caleb looked puzzled.

“But he’s a magic cat. How can you be allergic to magic cats?”

“He’s a _cat._ ” I echoed. I saw Caleb open his mouth to retort but stop himself. Beau stood up, still holding Frumpkin, and walked a few steps away from Fjord to help.

“Well, you’re both magic-users, then.” Nott said, changing the subject back to magic. “And so is the larger fellow?”

“Well, I mean, a little.” Fjord shrugged, shyly.

“Yeah, I mean, he’s learning. He’s getting really good at it.”

“Trying to learn more. Serasai and I talked about it briefly, we’re both learning.” He nodded over to me, trying to include me further.

“I’m getting a slow hang of it, I know a few rituals. I wouldn’t feel comfortable giving anything else a try just yet. At least not indoors.” I shrugged, and began rummaging around my bag.

“You should have seen Fjord. He disguised himself the other day, and it was like,” Jester clicked her tongue for emphasis. Fjord chuckled.

“Thanks, Jester. She’s better at it than I am. We’re trying to make our way up to the Academy to get a little bit more learning done.” Fjord explained.

“You as well, Serasai?” Nott asked, looking interested, but confused.

“Oh, no. Just want to learn the basics, to help with my alchemy.” I finally pulled out my book. Caleb’s eyes fell on it immediately, making me feel a little self-conscious.

“Me neither. Fjord’s going to learn; I’m not going to the Academy.” Jester corrected.

“Is that a spellbook?” Caleb asked, moving his chair to face me better.

“It is.”

“May I…? Have a look?” I weighed my options for half a second before handing it over.

“Sure. Very basic spells.”

I kept an eye on Caleb as he flipped through, pausing on each page to read the descriptions of the spells.

“Man, this Academy place keeps getting brought up.” Beau commented.

“Well yeah, it’s the place to be.” Fjord said.

“I’m sorry, what Academy are we talking about?” Nott asked.

“Soltryce Academy. You know.”

“It’s a very fancy place.” Caleb added absent-mindedly as he skimmed over the Create Bonfire cantrip.

“You know it.” Fjord acknowledged.

“I have heard of it.”

“And you have arcane talents as well.”

“How long have you had yours?” Jester asked, curiously. Caleb looked up from my book.

“That’s a tricky question. I studied when I was younger, and then I gave it up for a while. I picked it up again recently. It’s all book-learned.”

“Me too.” I said.

“Can you do these?”

“Not yet. I know two rituals that kind of come with the alchemist territory. But I’m very close to knowing those all, yeah.”

“This one sounds very useful.” He said, pointing to my favorite spell in the book.

“Agreed. Anything with potions, I’m there.” I cracked a smile.

“Wow, that’s cool.” Jester said, looking between the two of us.

“This was a good way to go for your first spell, Caleb.” Beau held up Frumpkin. “This is kind of therapeutic. Making me feel better, just about life in general.”

Fjord sneezed loudly, nearly spilling his drink.

“All right.” Beau put Frumpkin back on the floor.

“He reads lots of books, Caleb does. He’s very smart. In fact, should we go looking for more right now?” Nott asked. My attention piqued.

“Maybe in a little while.”

“All magic books, or…?” I trailed off.

“Preferably. Like I said, my magic is mostly book-learned. You…know how it is?”

“I do. I just, I grew up reading a lot. Anything I could get my hands on. Haven’t had a lot of free time uh, in adulthood, so I’ve been thinking of catching up on reading again.” I admitted.

“Can we see one of your books?” Jester asked, looking to Caleb. Caleb carefully handed me my spellbook, which I put away in my bag.

“Well–“ Caleb moved his coat to the side and we could see he had a couple books held in holsters at his side. “The books are right here. I have these, but these are heirlooms, family heirlooms, so I don’t share those, but– no, I like to read. That’s all. And I’m a bit of a self-starter, so I have to find– I mean, good luck at the Academy. That’s rough, I hear.”

“Do you know anything about it?” Fjord asked, hopefully. “We’re just going up. Beginner’s luck.”

“We know it’s rich people that go there. We have to find a way to get you in.” Jester said, turning to Fjord. Caleb shrugged.

“All I know is how hard it is to get into.”

“You don’t have a lot of money, then?” Nott asked. I raised a brow.

“Welllll.” Jester trailed off. Fjord shook his head.

“No.”

“We had more.”

“But then we lost it, but then we got it back.” Beau said.

“Somebody has a gambling problem.” Fjord said pointedly.

“Oh. Which one?” Nott looked between the four of us.

“Crick-Queen’s Call!” Jester cheered, outing herself as the gambler. “Have you played it?”

“No, I haven’t.”

“I’ll teach you someday. It’s so much fun.”

“It’s a game?”

“Yes.”

“Cards? All right. I might like to know that.”

“I mean, I can teach you, if you want.”

“Yes, I would like to know that.”

“Okay, I’ll deal!”

“Oh, right now?” Nott looked taken aback.

“Yes, sure, this will be fun.”

“Well, we have the time for it. I don’t know about you all, but my plans are only to get wasted and go to the carnival.” I said, raising a glass. Beau raised hers.

“Cheers to that.”

Fjord raised his as well and the three of us clinked our tankards together before taking a swig.

Nott seemed torn on what to do, looking up to Caleb.

“Is this okay?” She asked. Caleb leaned forward.

“Listen, I would not be sitting here if it were not for you. Do whatever you like.”

“Okay!” Jester pulled her chair over to their table, deck of cards now in hand. “You draw three cards. Well, I give you three cards.” She dealt the cards. “Okay. So hide your cards from me, because we can’t know. So first you have to ante up. How much coin do you want to put in?”

“I’m out.”

The group of us watching laughed. Caleb shook his head, smiling.

“It’s all right. I will front some coin for you to play this game.”

“Oh, great! How much do you want to front him?” Jester asked him instead.

“I will give you a silver piece.”

“A silver. Okay, this is great.”

“Thank you, Caleb. Thank you.” Nott said.

“Wish I had more.”

I started biting at my nails, and then took a drink to stop the habit.

“Okay. So the best hand you can get is three of a kind. Then, after that, it’s a straight. A high straight. Then a low straight. Then it’s if you get all evens, or if you get all odds, then it’s two of a kind, then it’s nothing, it’s just high card. Okay, but now we put in a second amount, because you can up the ante, and you get one more card.” Jester rambled.

“I’m out.”

“No, but wait, wait, wait. You can put in more money, and then I deal you a different card. You get to give a card back, and then I deal you another card.” Jester explained.

“Should I?” Nott looked down at her cards, then wide-eyed up at Caleb. “Caleb, do you have any more?”

“Because you saved my life yesterday, you may have one more silver piece.” Caleb said evenly, handing Nott another silver piece.

“One more silver. Okay, I’ll keep it low, too, because you’re only doing the one. So I only put in one silver, too.” Jester said, placing her silver in the small pile.

“Yes. And now give one of your cards back, whichever one you don’t want, and draw it again.”

“Okay, got it.”

“I don’t want to redraw any.” Jester explained when she didn’t draw. “Okay. Now you  
show what you got and we’ll see who wins.”

“I got a pair of fours.” Nott showed her hand.

“I got three fives.” Jester grinned widely, showing her winning hand.

And all hell broke loose.

Nott jumped up onto her chair, drawing her shortsword in a flash. Beau immediately moved to grab her. I held my ale closer to myself as if it were a shield. Nott slipped from her grip and stood, hopping a little with the force of her words.

“You’re cheating! Somehow you’re cheating!”

“Nott, Nott, that’s fine. That’s fine. She won my two silver pieces. We’ll just leave it at that.” Caleb comforted her. Slowly, Nott sheathed her shortsword.

“I’m sorry.” Nott apologized—more to Caleb than anyone else.

“That’s okay. She’s very jumpy sometimes. You can understand; we’ve been living in the woods for a long time. Every time we come near any place like this, we’re attacked, jumped, followed. So I apologize on behalf of–“ Caleb went into a nervous apology.

“That was stupid. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I’m sorry.” Nott said, now apologizing to Jester. Jester shook her head.

“No, it’s okay. Just don’t do it again. But I’m sorry I took all this money from your friend.”

I let out a small sigh at the bad, blunt apology, and allowed myself to relax again—nearly finishing off my ale.

“That’s making it worse.” Caleb winced.

“Maybe you could give some of it back.” Fjord said, playing mediator, as I’d come accustomed to seeing him do.

“Why, though? But I won it.” Jester whined. She sighed, collecting herself. “Tell you what. I’ll give you–…none of it back, I can’t!” She looked distraught. “Okay, here’s one silver back–“

“No, I insist.” Caleb shook his head.

“All right, fine, it’s mine, thank you. Yay.”

“I need another drink.” Nott sighed, sounding exasperated. Caleb quickly flagged down the waitress as she passed.

“A round of Trosts for both our tables, please.” He ordered.

I blinked, surprised and not complaining. It was an unexpected gesture—but I was never one to turn down a free drink.

“See? Isn’t that the most fun?” Jester asked, gathering up the cards and putting them away.

“It’s fun.” Nott admitted.

 “Any preference of family?” The waitress called from the bar.

“Not Baumbauch.” Caleb called back. I cocked my head, surprised again by the wizard, this time that he had remembered our preference that we’d only said in passing. 

“Von Brandt it is.” Came the waitress’ call.

“I’m impressed that you stuck to taking a guy’s money in a training game.” Beau said, getting Jester’s attention.

“Right?” Jester beamed. Then she stopped. “Oh, wait, is that bad?”

“Meh.” Beau waved her hand in a so-so gesture.

“Well, I only learned last night, you guys.”

“What is a training game?” Caleb asked.

“Just meaning when she was teaching.” Beau explained. Jester huffed.

“People took _my_ money when _I_ was learning!”

“It’s fine.” Caleb repeated, “It’s water under the bridge. It’s fine. It’s all right.”

The waitress walked up to our table with a platter full of trosts, sliding one in front of each of us.

“If you feel slightly worse, there’s a drink on me.” Caleb said.

“Oh jeez, now I’m definitely giving you your two silver back. Don’t worry about it, man!” Jester said, handing him the two silver coins like they didn’t matter—a complete 180 from moments ago.

The now much larger group of us shared our drinks, chatting idly about what had brought us to town, and about the upcoming carnival. I was slowly on my way to being a nice level of buzzed, and I was determined to at least take Beau down with me on this drunken carnival idea—which had originally been her plan in the first place.

When it seemed like a good time to get going, we gathered our things. Jester looked over to Nott and Caleb, grinning widely.

“Do you guys want company? Do you want us to come and hang out with you today?”

Nott leaned over to Caleb to consult him.

“I don’t know about that. That sounds risky, I don’t know.”

“Do you know something? I, shockingly, think that’s not a bad idea.”

“To have these weirdos with us!?”

“I can hear you.” Jester interrupted. The two paused, and then continued on unperturbed.

“Yesterday was a very bad day.”

“Yes. Well, I suppose if we surrounded ourselves with weirdos, then maybe it would take some of heat off of me.” My eyes narrowed at Nott’s logic. It made sense, but I wasn’t sure how I liked being a cover for someone I didn’t know.

“Well, yes.” Caleb turned back to us. “ _Bottom line:_ can you hang with the goblin?”

Jester looked determined.

“Bottom line–“ Jester reached out and touched Nott’s shoulder, casting a spell. Nott tensed, but quickly relaxed. She looked refreshed, or alert.

“Trickster’s Blessing.” Jester explained.

“Thank you. That’s very nice.”

“I don’t have a problem with goblins, but you guys aren’t in any trouble, are you? No one’s after you?” Fjord asked. I smiled, remembering them asking me the same question yesterday.

_“You are traveling alone? Why don’t we stay together?” Jester hopped up to me, grabbing my arm excitedly._

_“Guess it would make the Inn cheaper. And you did help us take down that snake, so. Why not?” Beau shrugged. Fjord stepped closer to us._

_“May I ask, if you don’t mind, why you’ve been traveling?”_

_“To see the world, really. And try to use my skills in a more practical setting.” I said, holding up one of my potions._

_“Now I don’t want to offend you with any assumptions, but you’re not in any trouble, are you? No one’s after you, or anything like that?”_

_I let out a calm sigh, a smile on my face wide enough to match Jester’s._

_“No one’s after me.”_

“No one is after me!” Nott squeaked out, a polar opposite to my response the other day. I gave Fjord a side-glance, which he caught. It didn’t take any words for everyone to be on the same page about Nott completely lying.

“Good to know.” Fjord nodded, and started walking towards the door. The rest of our traveling party followed suit.


	2. Curious Beginnings - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, the newly formed group of acquaintances had just left the Nestled Nook Inn to enjoy their day-plans to visit the carnival later this evening already underway...

“So.” Beau walked over towards Caleb and Nott. “Mask. I’m just fascinated by the mask. Looks well-made. Did you make it?”

“Found it. It was a doll’s face.” Nott said. Something told me maybe ‘found’ was a loose term.

“It seems we have all day. What were your plans?” Fjord asked, now that we were in the open.

“Not much. We were going to sample the different Trosts, and I wanted to maybe do some book browsing. Nothing major.” Caleb shrugged. My eyes widened.

“That sounds like my perfect day.” I said, sighing happily.

“What’s a Trost?”

“Brewery tour!” Beau cheered, completely ignoring Jester’s question.

“Pub crawl!” I cheered along.

“It’s ale.” Nott explained. Jester’s brow furrowed.

“We just can’t go by the Baumbauch ale.” Jester warned. I snickered.

“What happened with the Baumbauchs?”

“There _are_ two others to choose from, here.” Caleb pointed out.

“We loaded crates for them, but then we kind of screwed them over.” I explained.

“Not screwed them over, not that badly at least.” Beau tried to correct, “More like…lightly swindled.”

“Didn’t leave on the best of terms.” Fjord summarized. Caleb looked troubled.

“Do you need their ale specifically for something?” Jester asked.

“No, it’s just the one you swindled, it’s got the blessing of the big cheese here.”

“Oh. Well. Why do you need it?”

“We don’t need it. It’s just pleasurable to have a Trost, is what they say.” Caleb shifted. We blinked. His shoulders sunk and he pointed to Nott. “She kind of needs it.”

“I need it a little bit.”

“You need a beer?” Jester questioned.

“Well, I prefer the harder stuff, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.”

“Well if we go to multiple bars, maybe it’ll be good we’re taking it light. It’ll add up.” I reasoned.

“So beer tour, then circus?”

“Carnival.” I corrected, “And book shopping before we head there?”

“I’ve got to say, I miss those two people we ran into at the carnival.” Jester admitted.

“Don’t get too disappointed if we don’t see them again, they told us they’re not in the show.” Part of me wanted to see them again. I hadn’t gotten to talk to Yasha very much, though she didn’t seem overly talkative in the first place. But Mollymauk’s performer personality made them simply _interesting_ for me to listen to.

Jester seemed to ignore my warning completely.

“We will see them again.” Jester nodded, as if she knew it as fact.

“To a brewery, then?” Beau prompted, sliding to my side.

“Husseldorf is closest.” We looked around at each other, silently agreeing to head that way. Fjord pointed the way.

“To Husseldorf!”

//

The afternoon was a surprisingly fun mess of a pub crawl slash brewery tasting. Our first stop was Husseldorf, and our two bartenders were very sociable, which made up for us not being that well acquainted with each other. Once the others got more than one ale in their systems, laughs flowed easier.

Avoiding Baumbauch was as easy as ducking into any tavern. Every tavern had all three houses famous to the area. For the sake of sight-seeing, we went to the final brewery house instead of a random tavern. The drinks seemed to pass hands more at the last brewery, all of us getting different kinds. _“Try this!” “This is my favorite.” “Try this, it’s awful!”_

By the time Caleb wanted to head to get books, I felt pleasantly dizzy.

Our group wandered the shelves of the Hillsbrook Parchment and Binding shop, and I glanced at the titles. Most were about farming, which was disappointing. I had hoped for a wider selection. Caleb spoke to the shopkeep as we browsed, but I could hardly care in my daze. I turned around to ask Fjord a question, but stopped when I noticed the layout of the shop was unrecognizable. I looked around and saw Beau closest to me, picking at her nails. I awkwardly walked over to her.

“Okay I didn’t think I was that drunk but I don’t remember this looking like this.” I pointed around. Beau looked up and looked around the shop.

The shelves were realigned—there was a giant tower of books I hadn’t noticed, _piles_ on the floor in corners—everything was rearranged.

“No dude, what the fuck.”

“You too? Okay. Fjord?”

“Yeah?” I saw Fjord shelf a book on livestock. He stopped and looked around the shop. I saw his eyes widen in realization. _“Jester.”_

“OH.” I looked at Beau, our faces mirroring Fjord’s realization.

“We should go.” Beau choked out.

I nodded and the three of us beelined to the door. Jester was waiting outside, rocking on her heels.

Caleb followed not long after us, looking tense. He’d clearly noticed the shop’s new décor too. We started walking towards where Fjord, Jester, and Beau had once seen the carnival.

The sky was a beautiful orangey-pink as the sun set in the distance. It felt cooler out than before, which I didn’t mind as much in my buzzed state. It took me a second longer than my traveling companions to notice the sound of fiddling in the air.

As the sound neared, townsfolk seemed to be looking for the source of the noise as well. It became clear when a small procession of flamboyantly dressed people began parading through the central road. I looked on with glee at the parade the carnival had set up to promote the opening of their show.

An elvish man with long, ashy-brown hair led the pack, stepping lively. His coattails and part at the front of the procession made me imagine him as the ringmaster.

Behind him, two halfling women danced from one side of the road to the other. One was wearing a purple, and the other green. They were handing out flowers and flyers as they went along.

A bald man strode behind him in a frilled red coat, orange makeup splashed across his face that looked reminiscent of the sunset happening around us. In his hands rested the fiddle, calling attention to the motley crew.

Behind him was a tall half-orc with a large handlebar mustache, manning the drums.

I felt a jolt of recognition at the tiefling following behind him—Mollymauk was juggling his scimitars. He fumbled momentarily, but was able to catch it and continue on. I wondered if it were a real accident or if he did it for show.

I was so busy watching his display that my attention was yanked away by a sudden fwoosh of flames. A firebreather found between the two dancers was the culprit. People clapped and cheered in awe.

Finally, in the back, was Yasha with her arms crossed. She was clearly working as security.

Townspeople began to follow the procession, and our group quickly followed suit. Jester was practically buzzing with excitement, and her joy was contagious. The pack of us were quickly surrounded by excited children and townspeople. I spied a couple Crown’s Guard frowning at the crowd as we passed.

Once we got close to the waterfront I could see the tents. The show tent was the largest one, I assumed. It stood tall, dark blue, with streamers of white and silver flapping about. I looked at it with awe, excited to finally experience a carnival.

“Molly! Molly, hey!” I jumped, Beauregard calling Mollymauk over to our group. He seemed confused for a split second before recognizing us.

“Oh, it’s my favorites. Hello.”

“We came!” Jester cheered. Molly smiled, warmly.

“I’m so glad you all came to see the show. It’s going to be great tonight.”

“It’s going to blow you away.” Yasha deadpanned, “You’re going to love it.”

“First show of a round’s always the best. Without fail.” Mollymauk declared.

“Makes sense. Like a play.” I reasoned.

“Exactly!”

“Where are the best seats?” Beau asked.

“Well, I’m always partial to the front. Then you’re right in it, if something goes wrong, it’s nothing between you and whatever terrible, bloody mess is going to happen. It’s just the best.”

 _“What?”_ Beau and I asked at the same time, both a little alarmed.

“Nothing, nothing, you’re fine.” Molly waved off our worry. I relaxed, assuming that speech was part of the scare-hype thing the carnival had going, like their rule against the elderly.

“It’s going to be great, but before you go in, I do have to give you guys a pat-down, 'cause you can’t go in with any weapons.” Yasha explained. My expression hardened at this, worried. Before we could speak—

“You two!” The ringmaster Elf called. Molly and Yasha looked over to him. “Skip ahead, quick. We need to go ahead and set up. Looks like we’re already having quite a few people excited to come here, so at the door, interior to set up. Meet us at the front--Actually,” He paused in his rant, turning directly to Molly. “You know what? You’ll be on card duty. We need a little extra change on the side.”

“Card duty it is.” Mollymauk nodded.

“All right.” The ringmaster turned to face us, and addressed the full crowd. “Folks, excited for your patronage. Enjoy the night air. Walk slowly. We need just a moment to set up.”

He bowed, tipping his top hat at us, and as he did so I was able to recognize him as a half-Elf instead. With his bow, he was off. We were left to file into a line with the rest of the patrons.

At the entrance to the tent stood Yasha and a half-orc on either side, both checking in weapons and taking fees.

A few feet off to the side was Mollymauk, surrounded by a crowd. He was sitting on a small blanket with his cards splayed in front of him. As we passed we could easily hear the conversation, and I couldn’t help but eavesdrop.

“All right, so what can you tell me about this here cough?” A farmer asked, Molly’s first customer of the night.

“How long have you had it?”

“Oh, going on like three, four months.” The farmer coughed. Molly looked down at the cards.

“It looks like it’s getting better. Oh yes. Does it feel like it’s getting better?”

“Oh, right now? Yeah.”

“Yeah, look at that.” He gestured vaguely at the cards, “I would maybe breathe a tincture or something. Let’s– yeah, maybe you should get that looked at.”

“From who? What do the cards tell me?”

“Some sort of physician, perhaps…?”

“Right! Of course! Oh, thank you so much.” The farmer hurriedly places two copper in Molly’s outstretched hand. Molly eyed the coins distastefully—obviously worried about catching the farmer’s cough.

“Platinum Dragon be with you. Thank you.” He said quickly. The farmer nodded his thanks and turned. He yelled out to someone in the far crowd.

“Dear!! A _physician!”_

“I’m…concerned for that man...” I muttered.

“What happened to 'no sick people’?” Beau heckled.

“This is outside the tent.” Molly explained, not looking up at Beau from his cards.

“…Fair.”

“It’s good to see you all here, though.” Molly said, now looking up at the group of us as we stepped up to Yasha and the half-orc.

“Here’s the thing,” Jester began, “Some of us have weapons that we don’t want to pass away to other people, so how much of a chance is it that we could get through without having to do that, you know?”

“Well, you can’t see the show if you have a weapon on you.” Yasha said, evenly.

“Right. And we really want to see the show. But, you know, we are really good at security, like all of us are really strong, and we could fight things that came up, too, so maybe it would be best if you don’t take our weapons, and then we could help.”

I rolled my eyes, already able to tell this wasn’t going to work.

“Actually, here’s a deal. We’ll make you a good deal.” Beau interrupted, “You waive our entry fee and if anyone needs to be kicked out, or any security needs to happen, we’ll help you out.”

“Like deputy bouncers?” Nott questioned.

“Like deputy bouncers.” Beau agreed. Yasha raised a brow.

“Well, see, funny thing about that, though, is that’s my job. So.”

“So do you want to hire us?” Jester asked, hopefully.

“No.”

“You would be like our boss. Have you ever wanted to be a boss? Like, in charge?” Beau asked.

“Well, I am.”

“We could ask you for days off sometimes.”

“Is it too late to say I’m not with them?” I asked, directing it at no one in particular. I heard Mollymauk snort. The half-orc came over and put a hand on Beau’s shoulder.

“I’m terribly sorry, but we’ve got it taken care of. If you wish to pay entry, you can, but  
the rules are the rules. So sorry.”

“Do they get stored in some sort of locker or something?” Caleb asked.

“I hold them.” Yasha said, “And if you want, I can stand right next to you guys. You can keep your eye on me the whole time.”

“She’s very trustworthy.” Molly added. _Damn it._

I handed over my crossbow and whip, which Yasha took. I handed her the coin as well, to get in, which she pocketed. Finally, I unstrapped my double-bladed scimitar. I could feel people staring me down as this happened, a glance proving that Molly and Nott specifically were staring at the blades. I held it out to Yasha, but did not let go when she went to take it. I looked her in the eye.

“This is a very valuable weapon held in high regard among Elves. I appreciate your offer to stand nearby so I can keep it within my sights. It is very important to me, and I would be extremely upset if anything were to happen to it.”

Yasha nodded. I doubted she was perturbed by the thinly veiled threat--just looking at me I did not come off as intimidating.

“I promise it will be returned to you.” She nodded.

“You have a lot of weapons.” Nott commented, eyes still locked on my scimitar.

“I like to be prepared.”

“Yasha, does that seem– all right?” The half-orc questioned. Beau moved his hand off of her shoulder.

“What’s your name, by the by?

“Bo.”

There was a beat as we all processed that.

“Good name.” Beau said, smirking.

“Thank you.”

“Well, that’s funny, because your name is also Beau.” Caleb said. Bo cocked his head, surprised.

“Really?”

Beau’s shoulders sunk.

“You didn’t have to– maybe let me choose when to tell people–“

“No, no, I’m curious about this.” Bo interrupted, “How do you spell your name?”

“Well, it’s short for Beauregard.”

“Oh, mine’s just B-O.”

“That’s unfortunate. I mean, it’s great. Did kids make fun– never mind.”

“It’s not inaccurate.”

I made a face, a little grossed out by this whole conversation.

“It’s funny, see, my name’s Beau because my parents wanted a son.” Beau continued.

“Well. If it helps with any other confusion, call me the Breaker. Well, if you see the rest of the show, perhaps you’ll see why I got my name.”

“Are you in the show, too?” Jester asked. Bo stretched, cracking his arms.

“I am. Towards the end.”

“ _Now_ I want to see the show.” Fjord said, eyes wide.

“Well then. May I?” He reached out towards Fjord’s weapons, “Besides, if you’re going to enter, we’ve got to get through the rest of this riff-raff. Do you wish to join in?”

“All I have is a dagger.” Caleb said, handing his dagger to Yasha.

“I promise you I will give it back.” Yasha said, “I promise you I will give you all of your  
weapons back.” Jester bounded up to her, squinting.

“Pinky-swear me, Yasha!”

Yasha made a face.

“Ugh. I don’t like–“ Even as she spoke, she reached out her hand and pinky-swore with Jester. Jester immediately perked up.

“Yay! Now we’re best friends. Here’s my sickle.”

“I have a staff, but I also use it as a walking stick, so I like to keep it on me.” Beau said, still trying to get out of handing her weapon over.

“Can you not walk around without it or something?” Molly questioned.

“She has a really bad limp.” Jester lied.

“Sometimes I get a little twinge, a little disc issue.” Beau went with it. Molly stood up from his blanket, walking over.

“Can you hand me your staff so I can watch this? I want to see this limp of yours. Purely for my own entertainment.”

My eyes widened a little, surprised by Molly’s snide comment. He’d been nothing but polite so far, trying to get us to buy into the carnival. Beau’s eyes narrowed at him.

“Are you patronizing me, Mollymauk?”

“No, I’m hoping that you’re going to patronize us.”

I covered my mouth as I felt my jaw drop. Beau scowled, staring him down for a tense moment.

“…Can I keep my stick!?” She turned to Yasha.

“How about this? I’ll take it, and I can just carry you to your seat.” Beau’s eyes widened.

_“Deal.”_

Beau all but shoved her staff into Yasha’s hands.

“How are you carrying all of these weapons?” Jester asked.

“Because I’m really fucking strong.”

After a quick pat-down of Caleb to make sure all he had was the one dagger, Nott handed over a shortsword, and tried to pocket his crossbow.

“No, no, no. Little girl.” Yasha said, holding out a hand for the crossbow. I let my head loll back and sighed, annoyed at how long my group was taking.

“I’m just a little girl!”

“Give me your other weapon.”

“This is a toy for little children--All right, here. I’m sorry.”

“Are you keeping track of what goes with what person? Because it’s a lot.” Jester said.

“She’s very good at this.” Molly repeated.

“I’m very good.”

I saw Caleb drag Nott away, Beau and Jester following. I stayed close to Yasha and my scimitar, waiting on Fjord.

“Do you want to stare at me all day, or do you want to give me the weapon so you can go watch the show?” She asked Fjord.

“That’s an interesting choice.”

I looked over to Molly, who was now standing at my side.

“I am losing my damn mind with these people.” I said. He let out a short bark of a laugh.

“Can you stay here and just vocalize my thoughts I’m not allowed to say because I work here?”

I laughed.

“Sorry, I already paid my entry fee.”

I looked back to see Fjord hand over his falchion to Yasha. She felt its weight, sizing it up.

“This is nice.”

“Very nice.”

“I like it.”

“It’s a falchion!” Nott interrupted. Jester bounded back over, and looked up at Yasha.

“You’re going to hang out with us the whole night?” She asked.

“I’ll hang out beside you so you can watch.” Yasha explained. Yasha quickly organized the weapons we handed her in her pack alongside what I believed to be her own. Molly left my side and quickly picked up his cards into a deck.

“All right, well. If you want to follow me, I’ll take you to your seats and I’ll stand beside you the whole time.”

“Thank fuck.” “Fucking lead the way.” Fjord and I swore at the same time.

“Hey, Jester. Before you go.” Molly slid back to the group, “Tiefling to tiefling, and thank you for keeping this rabble in check.”

“Of course, you know, they’re a lot to handle.”

I barely restrained myself from making a smart remark, the strain visible on my face judging by Caleb awkwardly patting me on the arm. _I was not a patient person._

“One on the house.” Molly reached for his cards.

“Yes? What are you telling me?” I looked over to see Jester wide-eyed, Molly holding two cards. One was black wisps and a humanoid figure, the other was a picture of the moon.

“Does this mean anything to you?”

“Oh, yes.” Jester nodded, sagely.

“Well, think about it.” Molly grinned.  He brushed past us, opening the flap of the tent and waving us in. “After you.”

“Beau.” Yasha called.

Beau and Bo both turned to her. Yasha sighed.

“Little one.” Bo turned away. Yasha walked over and in one fluid motion lifted Beau over her shoulder, fireman style. “Since you can’t walk.”

“ _Oh.”_

Yasha carried Beau in ahead of us, Molly slow-clapping as they passed.

“Such _grace!_ Such _form!_ Such _dignity!”_

Beau flipped him off as we passed.

“If I skip around, will I be part of the show and then I don’t have to pay?” Jester asked behind me.

“Weirdly, being part of the show means you strangely pay more. I’m not entirely sure how that works.”

The rest of the group fumbled with their coin, paying the entry fee. I stayed by Yasha, having paid already. I saw Jester run off to get front row seats for us, and followed suit—keeping an eye on my scimitar best I could.

Inside the tent stood a central pillar holding the tent up made of an old tree. The floor was rocky, and scattered with patches of flattened grass and dirt. People were sitting on the floor in a semi-circle, waiting for the show to start. Four lanterns flickered constantly, lighting the tent from above.

“Did you guys want to sit in the front row?” Yasha asked.

“That’s what we were told is the best seat in the house.” Nott said.

“Front and center? Or do you want to be on the sides?”

“Front and center!” Jester cheered. Yasha led the way, and I felt a little awkward sitting directly in front of people who had been waiting. I wound up sitting between Jester and Caleb. Jester immediately pulled out her sketchbook and began drawing what looked to be the cards Mollymauk had pulled for her. I turned to Caleb, who had Nott sitting on his other side.

“Excited?”

“Oh, yes.” Caleb seemed surprised I had struck up a conversation. “I am interested to see the magic they will be using for their stunts.” He looked over to Nott who—now that she was actually in the tent—was bouncing up and down. Caleb smiled. “And Nott is excited to see the show, too.”

I smiled, looking between them. It was obvious Caleb cared a lot for Nott. There was some kind of love there I didn’t understand, but it was nice to see even if it made me feel a bit envious. It had been a while since I had anyone to watch my back in a fight.

“--bring a cushion from home like a regular person.” I heard Molly sass Beau a couple spaces down, breaking me out of my thoughts.

The music began to die down and the whole crowd began to quiet to whispers of anticipation. The sound of a fiddle was what finally caused the audience to silence, and wait for the show to begin.


	3. Curious Beginnings - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, our group had just settled down to enjoy The Fletchling and Moondrop Traveling Carnival of Curiosities...

“Look!” I heard murmured behind me and looked up to the top of the tent. The man in red from earlier was above us, now dressed in deep blue, hanging from a rope by his foot. In his hands was the fiddle, haunting music swathing over the audience. Gracefully he descended, playing continuously, until the very last moment before he hit the floor. With a quick flip he was standing, music undisturbed. With a slow spin, the half-elf ringmaster joined him on the stage. With a large, dramatic bow, we began to applaud.

"Ladies and gentlemen of Trostenwald, I am Carnival Master Gustav Fletching, and allow me to welcome you to the Fletching and Moondrop’s Traveling Carnival of Curiosities.”

“I ask you, each and every one of you–” I heard the sounds of children giggling as he went out of his way to make eye contact with nearby audience members, “–grant us your imaginations this eve but a trifle bit of time, and allow us to reveal a realm of laughter, mystery, danger, and beauty. I see you’ve already met Desmond.” He gestured to the man playing the fiddle.

“He’ll be part of our story tonight, so keep a wily eye for the shifting fool. But first, I tell you a tale of two sisters of the Fey.”

We watched Desmond slowly exit the tent through the performers entrance, and two Crown’s Guard step through to take a position guarding the entrance.

“Lost without form into the mazes of the underworld. There, where the body would break, they found a teacher in a mystical serpent, and the gift they received was the ability to bend with this maze that captured them and slither their way back to the surface to reclaim their place in the world.”

I blinked in awe, allowing myself to be taken in by the story that sounded so much like a fairytale I’d read in a book.

"May I present to you Mona and Yuli, the Knot Sisters.” Gustav walked slowly out through the performers entrance.

“Hey! _Nott_ sisters.” I looked around Caleb to Nott, grinning. I saw Caleb make a face at the joke, and chuckled to myself. In Gustav’s place appeared the two halfling dancers from the earlier parade.

They had serpentine makeup and scales adorning any bare skin that was visible. They approached the central pole holding the tents up to take center stage. Immediately they began leaping onto one another and contorting to create a humanoid sculpture of themselves. Others in the front row cringed at the spectacle and how painful it looked, but the halfling girls didn’t even flinch as they matched the--now disembodied--fiddle music’s increasing speed.

“It’s like the serpent we fought, you guys!” Jester breathed, excitedly.

Suddenly, the top halfling folded over and slammed into the ground, tumbling across the center wildly. The two of them began to tangle and wrap like two battling snakes, their bodies seemingly disconnecting from any sense of rigidity. For a moment they truly looked serpentine.

They intertwined around the base of the pole. My eyes were locked on their performance, it was beautiful and violent and I wanted to remember everything about it.

The lights above began turning a dull greenish-blue, the tent getting darker and darker. The story of the underworld came back to mind as they moved in the darkness. They used their serpentine-like forms as an extending ladder, folding over each other while desperately clinging around the pole, ladder-stepping up like a snake.

It was the most out of world, alluring sight I could recall in a great while. Everyone seemed pulled into their performance despite the violence and struggle, but that was a large part of what drew me in. It was too easy to forget these were two halfling girls and not the serpent of the story. All of us were enraptured by their wordless tale of climbing back to their place, to the surface, towards the dark sky represented by the dark blue cloth.

As the light of the tent began to glow brighter and brighter, their climbing became more fevered. The two of them, arm into arm, leg into leg, rolled up and swirled, until eventually at the top of the tent and top of the song, they grabbed each other’s arms around the pole and spun downward, back-to-back, legs outward, at a rapid pace. The music came to a full crescendo as they both curled and tumbled to the ground before the audience with a flourish, arms in the air.

We erupted into thunderous applause, I loudly cheered from my place in the front.

“That was amazing!” I cheered, beaming over at Jester.

Gustav emerged from the performer’s entrance as the two girls exited, smiling. Desmond followed behind him, dressed in all black this time. The lights dimmed again as Gustav stood center stage.

“In a flash, beyond the ash, the gods all went and gone. The darkness came to grasp, reclaim, and suffocate the dawn.” Suddenly, out of the darkness behind him, a burst of flame lit the room. “But from that night, a burning light doth keep back shadows’ bane. The strength to fight will set alight the morning sun again.”

"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Ornna the fire fairy.” And Gustav left the tent.

Through the entrance appeared the firebreather from the parade. Now framed by a pair of metallic fans, alight with flame, the beautiful woman with short red hair made her way onto the stage. Ornna spun in a hypnotic twirl as strands of her dress fanned out in glints of golds and reds. She looked like she was glowing in the firelight around her, _luminous_ as Molly had said only hours ago, the flames and her movements illustrating that of a warrior-goddess battling the surrounding darkness. Desmond played his fiddle at a more frenzied pace as her dance sped up to match. Her face was expressionless, but she moved with grace and precision.

She twirled the fans in her grasp, and a hushed awe from the audience filled the air. Ornna struck out at the shadows, the lights above began flickering brighter with each spin and dive, banishing the defeated shadows from the room. At the music’s crescendo she leaped and did a barrel-turn, striking a powerful landing pose as the lights rocketed to a victorious brightness. Once again, the crowd went crazy with applause.

“This is really different than most carnivals that I’ve gone to!” Jester said. I saw Nott peek over, leaning around Caleb.

“It’s very artistic, yeah!”

Gustav entered again, applauding along with the rest of us as Ornna took her bow. A low drumbeat joined the fiddle as Gustav took the stage.  

“Even as the sun would rise anew, bellowing roars will quake the lands of Xhorhas and beyond. Terrible beasts, now freed from their dark masters, scattered into our world.”

As if on cue—and perhaps it was—a terrible, guttural roar shook the tent. The sounds of shackles and chains being yanked could be heard in the distance. The half-orc we’d met earlier, Bo, and Desmond—whose fiddle played of its own accord now floating midair—were dragging chains desperately. The metal wrapped around their arms to give them traction as they pulled in an enormous creature I had never seen before.

Covered in green scales, but with slimy-looking skin, this large beast with toad-like legs was dragged in against its will. It fought and roared, wrestling against its chains as the two men pulled it further in to the center of the tent. My eyes darted to Yasha, who stood unperturbed, while the nearest audience members began pulling back in fear of the creature. The sounds of kids crying could be heard below the creature’s roar, and some audience members were scrambling to their feet out of fear. Yasha looked unbothered, so I stayed on the ground as calmly as I could.

Gustav continued, looking equally calm as Yasha.

“The devil-toad crawls hungrily into the land of the free folk, lording over nightmares as they say, and what truth lies behind the eyes of this beast? What would be learned when the guiding heart of innocence pierces the hateful soul and brings it to see beauty for the first time? I present to you the vivid voice of Toya.”

And as Gustav backed away, the devil-toad struggling against the chains, a soft, faint voice began to slowly emanate from the air.

Our eyes that were previously locked on the frightening creature now darted around for the source and found it high up, on a small platform set against the apex of the pole. There stood a young dwarven girl, maybe 12 years of age, with her golden hair set in braids and her hands at her side, a white dress obscuring her feet.

She sang with a mystifying, mature voice that pierced our hearts with uncontrollable joy. The 180 from the fear, panic, and tense air moments ago was like a whiplash. The crowd gasped, entranced by the girl’s song. It had to be magic.

The devil-toad stopped struggling in its chains, as caught up by her spell as we were. Its enraged face dropped into a soft smile as it treaded slowly towards the base of the pole and sat down. Desmond and Bo dropped the chains and backed away slowly, leaving the beast in the little girl’s care.

Her voice seemed to ripple, magically, summoning an almost ethereal chorus from thin air to join her in her song. With a joyful smile, she stared into the eyes of the creature. I felt a small splash on my hand as a tear fell—I hadn’t realized I was crying. I felt gentle bonds of magic holding my gaze to the girl, and despite knowing it was a benevolent magic, I felt a dulled jolt of panic. I ripped my eyes to Caleb, who had streams of tears down his cheeks, but otherwise stood motionless—eyes never straying from the girl. Looking over to Jester, she was in tears as well, but smiling through it up at the little girl.

I gave myself a moment to calm myself, though the tears didn’t stop. It only took a second for the panic to fade, dull as it was, and I chose to look back up at the girl and let the magic capture me again.

As I looked up, a man in our row, but on our far left stood up. He outstretched his arms towards her, and his cloak fell away. His face and skin was wracked with age, and I looked on in confusion—wondering how he had managed to get in, and if he was part of the show.

His legs were shaking as he stood, his cheeks wet with tears like the rest of us. With a sudden shout his arms dropped and he clutched his chest in pain. My eyes widened as other patrons nearest to him began to lean and shuffle away from him. _Heart attack?_

With another sharp yell, the skin on his arms suddenly began to tear—bones jutting out violently from his flesh, writhing unnaturally and cracking. Dust and blood shook from his wounds as he began to grow, swelling up from his once-human form. It was like we were all too in shock to speak until that moment, and as one we all regained our wits.

Screaming rang out from the audience and people around us sprung up, clinging to their children, pushing and shoving towards the exit. Our row jumped up and I pushed myself in front of Caleb and Nott. I heard Bo yell as Toya looked down in growing horror.

“Everyone! Leave the tent now! Kylre–” Bo pointed to the devil-toad, “–get her to safety.” The devil-toad glanced up and leaped with a sudden gust of strength to the top and grabbed the center pole of the room as it began to sway with his weight. He grabbed the little girl safely under his arm and leapt back down.

Suddenly beside me were multiple versions of Jester, an increasingly familiar sight to me.

“Pass my stuff.” I held a hand out to Yasha, Fjord at my side, already doing the same.

“Man, I thought it was kind of lame at first, but this is awesome!” I heard Beau cheer.

“Everyone get out _right now_.” Molly said, trying to usher her out.

“This isn’t part of the show?”

“Not part of the show.” Fjord confirmed.

“It’s too artsy.” Nott agreed. The old man’s body stopped quaking, his flesh now grey and mangled unrecognizably. He turned to us with blood-red eyes and a horrifying grimace.

I saw the two Crown’s Guard trying to make their way through the panicked crowd, and found myself standing at Fjord’s side, in front of Caleb and Nott, facing down the creature.

Jester shot out a spell, hitting the creature with a jolt. One of the two Jesters stayed nearby while the other fled, flanking the creature. I grimaced, feeling naked without my double-bladed scimitar between me and danger. I reached into my alchemy pouch and grabbed a bottle, chucking it at the creature.

The vial soared, nearly missing, but exploded into fire upon impact. The creature reared back, roaring.

“ _You_ _had a weapon still!?”_ Molly shouted.

 _“It’s a potion doesn’t count!”_ I shouted quickly, my sentence practically jumbling into one word.

Enraged, the creature lunged at the nearest passerby—a woman who was trying to back away. It turned towards her and grabbed, missing at first. She ducked down and tried to crawl away but the second attack came too quickly. The creature’s fist slammed into her chest and she let out a horrible yelp. It ripped into her and began to gnaw into her flesh, ripping away mouthfuls, blood covering its form. It broke away, eyes darting around wildly for its next victim.

A clatter grabbed our attention as Yasha chucked our weapons out towards us. I grabbed my scimitar first and foremost, able to grab my whip and crossbow to holster them as the others joined the fray and covered me.

Fjord ran through Jester’s form, which dissipated and reformed around his charge. His falchion at the ready, he swung violently.

I could feel Caleb move away from me, retreating further into the crowd. Above my head a beam of light blue energy blasted, slamming into the creature and forming crystals on its skin.

_“And IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII will always soothe YOOOOOOOOOOUUUUU!”_

I glanced over to see Nott trying to sing to the creature, whose red eyes darted amongst us. One of its eyes locked on Nott.

“Fuck!”

Swearing, Nott retreated even further behind me into the crowd, near Caleb.

“Guys, no, it’s part of the show. Molly said that people die. She was just a claque.” Beau said, waving her hands, trying her best to look nonchalant. Dropping the act, she ran forward and tackled the creature. He broke away from her hold easily.

“Oh _, fuck that!”_  

Angry at her failed attack, Beau pulled back and leaped, kicking it in the chest, landing, and immediately uppercutting the grey, blood-splattered creature in the chin.

The crowd behind us was thrown into further chaos after witnessing the first death, Caleb and Nott barely able to weave around the stampeding civilians.

The woman lying on the ground with a gaping, ragged hole in her chest, suddenly moved. With a crack that was in no way natural, she snapped up to stand.

 _“Shit.”_ I swore, finally affixing my whip to its place on my belt.

“Open the tent wide!” Molly tried to bellow over the crowd. He darted ahead of me, towards the side of the newly formed creature. He drew one of his scimitars, and as he did he sliced a thin line across the side of his exposed chest. At the contact with his blood, the edge of the blade began to form ice crystals.

One strike, Molly cut into the creature, cutting a wide wound open and exposing the creature’s inner organs. Instantly the organs were frozen where the wound cut through, cauterizing the wound with ice. 

_Damn._

“Dude, are you here!? Because this is like _the coolest shit we’ve ever seen!”_ I heard Jester across the room, basically voicing my own thoughts.  

The sound of a deep, temple bell followed her shout, ringing out so loudly that I could feel the vibrations. The creature folded in on itself, clutching its head before lashing out at Beau. It slammed into her stomach with its fist, its other hand grabbing at her abdomen and digging its claws in. My eyes widened as its jaw unhinged and dropped like a serpent’s.

Face contorted in pain and anger, Beau turned to Fjord.

“I’m not a claque, this show’s _bullshit_.”

The woman-turned-creature rushed Mollymauk, missing its strikes as its eyes turned unnaturally black. Stumbling out of range, Fjord turned and with the brief opening as it rushed past Molly, Fjord swung his falchion and struck it across the back of the creature’s shoulder.

The falchion took a chunk out of the swollen, undead form lumbering past, but didn’t deter it from spinning back around and clocking Mollymauk across his jaw.

I darted ahead, double-bladed scimitar in hand, flanking the newer creature. I struck out with my scimitar, slicing into its already gaping wound from Fjord’s falchion. It roared out in pain, which I silenced with another hit from the other end of my blade across its face. Its jaw was nearly sliced through, dangling by a strand of sinew.

A gleam behind us shone as Yasha unsheathed her greatsword and charged towards the original creature with a violent yell.

“GET THE _FUCK_ OUT OF MY TENT!”

I heard the first creature’s body crumble to the ground, destroyed by the force of Yasha’s strike.

Shadows began to swirl and gather around the zombified woman Molly and I faced, the only remaining creature. I recognized the shadows as a spell Fjord had cast against the serpent. True enough, Fjord stepped up next to me and ripped into the creature with his falchion again, carving a giant mark across its chest. The opening of the wound showed the creature’s blackened interior, its muscles moving like worms, regathering and pulsing.

A crossbow bolt came from nowhere, piercing the creature through the eye—the eye itself flying into the distance out the back of its head.

On my left, Molly spun around, pulling out his second scimitar and taking a strike with each of his swords. Molly hit the creature in a flurry. The creature’s body snapped open from the force of the first strike, before falling and snapping back into place, just as quickly being spun around its spinal column by another blow, managing to stay standing at an uncomfortable angle.

With a demonic growl of his own, Molly jammed his scimitar into the creatures gaping abdomen, wedging it into its spinal column, grating and cracking as Mollymauk drew his scimitar upwards. The creature’s spine shattered and immediately froze over as ice followed the blade’s grinding trail. Its wailing became a final whimper as Molly’s blade sliced completely through, leaving a vertical trail of ice through the creature.

Frozen, the creature’s knees gave out, and the shadows from Fjord’s hex dissipated. As the creature fell back limply, the ice shattered, leaving the remains cut cleanly down its center.

“Holy shit.” I breathed, the ending of the fight simply _brutal_.

The others gathered around, each confirming for themselves that the creature was dead.

“…I thought you said you didn’t let in the sick?” Beau snarked.

“Fuck off.”

Molly sheathed his scimitars.

I looked over to Beau to see her buckled over, grabbing at her gash. I reached into my pouch and handed her a vial.

“Drink this.”

Worldessly, she wrenched the vial from my hand and downed it. I fished around for another and held it out to Molly, having seen him get hit too.

“Healing potion?” He asked, already reaching for it.

“Yeah.”

He raised the bottle in cheers, silently thanking me, and began to drink it as the two members of the Crown’s Guard rushed to the front. Their weapons were drawn and they looked around frantically, until they spied us standing over the mangled corpses.

“You, you! Stay where you are!”

Seconds later, Gustav pushed through the crowd towards us.

“Dear god, what’s happened here?” He asked. He looked over toward Bo, as he joined us.

“Sir, I don’t know how he got in here.” Bo shook his head. Everyone turned to our group, the two carnies addressing Molly.

“What happened?”

“One of them turned. I don’t know what happened.”

“There was a sick guy!” Jester said, running over to Beau’s side, and casting a healing spell. “There was an old sick guy and he turned into a zombie!”

“Oh, thank you, man. I’m really down.” Beau breathed, handing my vial back. It disappeared in my hand.

“Are you sick too? Did you get hurt? Hold on two seconds. I’m going to cure her and then I’ll cure you too.” Jester said, to Molly.

“Holding up with the potion, but wouldn’t mind some more healing.” He said.

Fjord stepped forward. “Yasha, have you ever seen anything like this happen before?”

“No. Never.”

“Stay where you are.” The Crowns Guard repeated, both looking shaken, “Don’t go anywhere.”

Molly looked at them as if they were stupid.

“Oh. Wherever will I go.” He deadpanned. The Guards ignored him.

“Sivelmen, find someone. Bring the rest of the guard. Please!” “Right now, sir.”

I ignored the Crown’s Guard’s conversations and looked around the tent. Children crying, families clutching one another and leaving through the tent flap at a more normal pace, all looking traumatized. There was a small, barely smoking hole in the navy canvas of the tent where a spell must have misfired in combat. The flattened dirt beneath us was stained with red and black, occasional ice shards scattered, and an initial scorch mark on the ground where I had thrown my vial.

Jester’s forms merged with themselves again, leaving one Jester standing.

“Don’t move.” The guards commanded.

“Which one?”

“…Both? Uh…”

The group of us watch a frankly ridiculous display as Jester reformed her doppleganger and both began to loot the bodies under the nose of the Guards.

Rather than watch, I turned to listen to Gustav’s growing panic.

“I’m terribly sorry. I– this has never happened. I don’t know what happened. _What happened!?”_

“We’ve never seen anything like it before.” Mollymauk shook his head, “He just– he gripped his heart and fell over and turned into that thing.”

“It was when Toya started singing.” Yasha added. Beau’s brow furrowed.

“Yeah, what’s with the dwarven girl? Why–“

“Nothing like this.” Molly cut her off.

“She’s been singing with us for over two years, now.” Gustav said.

“She looked scared.” I interrupted. I remembered watching the devil-toad performer leap up to her. She hadn’t been scared of him, but the creatures…she’d looked confused and frightened. “I don’t think she expected that to happen, let alone—” _caused it,_ went unspoken.

“How’d she come to you? She’s a pretty young girl.” Beau continued.

“She had no family and she was singing in the street for change. There was an opportunity. We seized it. We gave her a family she didn’t have.”

“Put your hands down.” Fjord said. The whole while Gustav had been speaking his hands had been up in fear of the Crown’s Guard. Gustav looked over to the guards for confirmation.

“It’s fine, just don’t move.” They commanded. Gustav’s arms fell. We stood in an awkward silence waiting for more Guards, it seemed, until Ornna, the fire fairy who had previously performed, walked in.

“I’m sorry. What has happened here?”

“Your little dwarf girl was singing, and she turns people into zombies.”

I facepalmed at Jester’s explanation.

Mollymauk stepped up to do more damage control, “I feel that that was entirely coincidental. I’m really not sure that the two things were related. Something was wrong with this man.”

“See, it’s interesting, because I would say the opposite.” Beau argued, “I would say it wasn’t that coincidental, because–“

“I would agree, it seemed to happen with this–“ Caleb began, but Molly cut him off.

“We’ve seen her sing dozens, _hundreds_ of times. Nothing like this has ever happened. I’ve seen people sit in the front row hundreds of times. _Nothing like this has ever happened_.”

“Have you had the elderly or the sick in these tents before?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah, you also happen to be very explicit on your page that you don’t want the sick, so.” Beau agreed. Mollymauk sighed.

“Gustav.” He waved his hand tiredly, bringing the ringmaster in to explain.

“It’s generally just because we want to promote a space of welcoming cleanliness. When we’re working amongst the outskirts of the Empire, we don’t want to bring an element that reminds you of death and–”

“You hate old people so much.” Nott blinked.

“Well, we’re in entertainment. We have to be cautious.”

“…Hold up. I’ve never seen that one before. He looks really suspicious.” Molly said, suddenly pointing at a Crowns Guard. The man was practically quaking. Jester gasped dramatically.

“He _does_ look suspicious!”

“Don’t try that on me.” The Guard glared, even while shaking, “I’ve been doing this for over ten years.”

“Oh wait, look at him!” Yasha said, trying to deadpan a less. Jester suddenly started hacking, coughing uncomfortably.

“There was some popcorn that I ate earlier.” She explained.

 _This group was getting more ridiculous by the hour_. I fidgeted with the bandana around my neck, unsure what the Guard’s intentions with us were.

“You should know that whatever happened to that first man when he attacked the woman, she caught whatever he had.” Fjord spoke up, pointing to the bodies.

“And that is extremely worrying. Nobody touch that body.” His eyes widened, realizing what he had just said, and looked over to Jester. “Don’t you touch that body! Are you sick?”

“I have bloody fingers.” Jester held up her hands, still coughing.

“Someone hold her down! If she’s sick and turns into one of these, I will not–”

“She’s fine.” Yasha interrupted, “Just calm down.”

“Well, we’ve already killed two of them.” Molly shrugged. Nott nodded.

“She’s definitely sick.”

The Guard’s face goes white, and with his blade held above he began to rush forward, “Kill  
the thing!”

Yasha pulled out her greatsword before he could reach Jester, stepping between them.

“Stop, stop.”

I leaned on my double-bladed scimitar, watching the back and forth of the group as they had an inane conversation in an attempt to calm the guard, and prove that we were the ones who helped contain the threat rather than caused it. It didn’t seem to be going well, and I knew I would be little help if I chose to speak. Since I’d met up with them, the only smooth-talker among us seemed to be Fjord.   

Eventually, the entrance of the tent flapped open, and ten more guards began to filter into the chamber. The leader, or so it seemed, of the guard came forward and took off his helmet. He looked to be around his early 40s, brown hair going a little grey.

“I had a gut feeling that you were nothing but trouble when you came into our town.”

Great.

“I guarantee to you, my friend, I have no idea–”

“What happened here?” The guard finished Gustav’s sentence for him.

“Sir, Flynn.” The scared Guard introduced himself, “There was a creature. This carnival seemed to create some sort of terrible entity that killed and then created a secondary beast. I watched it with my own eyes from the back row.” The lead guard turned back to Gustav and our group.

“And who else saw that?”

“We did.” Fjord said.

“Well, we saw an old guy turn into a zombie,” Jester began, “But it’s possible that he just died because he was old, and then he had the zombie curse on him and just turned, you know? Because that happens a lot.”

“Gustav, it’s no use, we’ve been found out.” Molly deadpanned, “Our terrible plot to make a zombie rampage through our carnival has been discovered. Whatever will we do now that we’ve been discovered for our brilliant plot to make a zombie ruin our circus. My god.”

The scared guard—Flynn—jumped and turned to Molly instantly.

“Put your weapons down or we’ll arrest you immediately!”

“I’m _literally_ holding nothing but my hands.”

“I mean, I’m sorry, but we’re basically a group of strangers.” Caleb explained, “Most of us don’t know each other. We all have the same story. There was a show, an old man became a thing, and we helped destroy it. This one destroyed it. What more do you want from us?”

“It ruined our show.” Molly repeated.

“Watchmaster, what should we do?” Flynn asked, addressing the group’s leader. The Watchmaster walked forward towards Gustav, giving him a once over. He stood a few inches shorter than Gustav, but had this sense of entitlement about him. Disinterest and disrespect.

“You, sir, and your orc, and your circus, are considered currently under arrest. Who else belongs to your merry band?”

Gustav looked at all of us, eyes barely glancing over Yasha and Molly.

“The orc. …The rest of them are just purveyors of our performances. He was just joking earlier, right?”

The Watchmaster didn’t believe it for a second.

“And you are also under arrest. The rest of you, what are your names?”

“El’aria.” I lied immediately. The others followed suit.

“Shirley.” Jester.

“Temple.” Nott.

“Caleb Widogast.” Ruining the game.

“Beau, same as him.” Beau pointed to Bo.

“Here’s the thing. Oh, it’s Mary by the way,” Yasha said, “But I think I know who might know what has happened here.”

“Do you? Tell me.”

“I’ll have to go get her.”

“Who is this?”

“She is the singer that made this all happen.”

The Watchman turned to the guards.

“Flynn, escort this woman to retrieve this individual she speaks of.” Flynn nodded and walked towards Yasha. Jester shuffled forward.

“She’s really shy, though, and I hear she only talks to tieflings, so you should probably send–“

_“Stay where you are.”_

“–my brother along, because he’s really good with that stuff.”

This didn’t go over well with the guards, and they ignored her. Molly gave an exaggerated smile to Flynn.

“Try not to stab any random people on your way there, Flynn. _You’re doing good_.”

Flynn shot him what was probably meant to be a glare as he left.

“My men tell me that the rest of you helped destroy these fiends. Is that correct?” The Watchmaster asked.  A chorus of “yeah”s answered him. “Then on behalf of the Starosta, I appreciate your aid. But until this investigation is complete, you are all under investigation from us. Where are you staying?”

“The Nestled Nook Inn.” Fjord answered.

“Nested Nook.” Nott said, at the same time.

“Nestled. He got it right.” Caleb corrected, quietly.

“Do not leave this city unless you are told otherwise. Should you do so, I have your names,” I held back a grin at this, "and I can have the full might of the Cerberus Assembly track you down.” He turned to the guards. “You. Flynn. Free this girl.”

Flynn and Yasha walked out, Yasha leading him to the singer.

“So. The investigation will begin. If any information comes to light that could alleviate you of the charges brought to this carnival, come to me and let me know. If you have no answers before we complete this investigation, then I believe you all will fall into the judgment.” My eyes narrowed.

“Next time we don’t help. That’s what it comes down to.” Jester huffed.

“I know,” Beau agreed, “We got paid the first time we helped, and then we got arrested the second time. I don’t know what lesson to learn here.”

“Remember, you flee, I’ll find you.” The Watchmaster warned. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First combat!! This chapter was so much fun to write! It was cool to see how Serasai would impact combat. Her Alchemical Fire didn't do much to change the outcome of the first creature's death, but the damage she did with her scimitar was enough to have Mollymauk be the finishing blow instead of Beau. In retrospect, wish I would have held my turn until Yasha had passed out weapons. But still, so fun to write, and to see how Serasai's presence can change events. 
> 
> Thank you everyone who has left kudos, commented, or bookmarked! It means a lot.


	4. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, things had gone awry at the carnival, and the guards were summoned to interrogate our travelers...

“Watchmaster! The big woman is gone! She’s gone!”

All of us turned to the entrance, where Flynn had rushed back in, bent over and huffing from his run. The Wacthmaster glared at him.

“You three, go with him. Search for her.” Three guards immediately ran out of the tent, Flynn following behind. The Watchmaster turned to us. “Shackle and drag those three down to the stockade.”

Five guards pushed Gustav, Bo, and Molly to the ground and began to put chains and shackles on them.

“I’d like to make a counteroffer?” Molly interjected. The Watchmaster kept giving orders, ignoring him.

“The rest of you keep an eye on the performers here. Ask around, see what you can find. As for the others, don’t go far.”

“The innocent patrons, you mean?” Jester’s tail swished. The Watchmaster paused.

“You may be innocent, in which case you have nothing to worry about. However, we have an investigation to complete, so I would ask that you stay in the city and wait until you are called in. You will be questioned, and when this investigation is completed, regardless of how long it may take, you are not to leave Trostenwald.”

“If I could just contribute one word,” Caleb stepped forward, “The 40 or so people who are outside and the rest of us will vouch for this one, the colorful one. He saved many people’s lives. Don’t take my word for it. There’s everyone outside.”

It felt like our whole group held our breath as the Watchmaster looked from Caleb to Molly.

“Well, unfortunately, that is not for me to decide. The Lawmaster would have to be appealed to. If you wish to come with us, we can bring you along with us to the stockade and you can speak with her. Then, perhaps, she may grant you leniency, but I can give you no guarantee.”

“Why don’t you just question us right now?” Beau asked, “I’m confused on why you don’t just do that now.”

“Well, we could do that instead. We’ll have you arrested, put you in the stockade as we question the rest of you.”

“No, let’s go to the stockade!” Jester said quickly. Fjord nodded.

“Yeah, we’ll all be in one place.”

“Yeah.”

“Better to argue free than in chains.” I added. The guards hauled Gustav, Bo, and Molly to their feet.

“We’re leaving. The rest of you, stay in here.” The Watchmaster commanded the remaining guards, “Watch over the performers. Make sure nobody leaves.” He turned to us. “Come if you wish. Otherwise, we’ll be in touch.”

With that, the group of prisoners were ushered out of the tent. Beau set out quickly on her own, with a look of determination. Fjord and Jester went towards the flap of the tent. I took a moment to examine the bodies strewn on the ground. Looking them over, their entire insides had been transformed into a whole new material, organs blackened, as if it were devoid of life.

“Coming, Serasai?” I saw Fjord and Jester at the entrance, looking at me.

“Coming!” I ran over, and the three of us set out to follow the Watchmaster’s procession. The city bustled as it normally would, word of the carnival not yet having spread throughout the whole town. The battle felt like it was longer ago than it was. I could see the back of Molly’s coat through the crowd, as the last prisoner in the line, flanked by guards.

“So what’s our play on this?” I asked, looking up to Fjord.

“Try to get them to see reason. As far as we know, it’s the truth that the carnival workers weren’t behind this.”

“It would be weird for them to want to ruin their own carnival.” Jester said, nodding.

“And Caleb, wherever he went, he mentioned that the audience could vouch. We have a lot of witnesses.” I added.

Ahead of us stood a large, single-story, stone building. Crownsguard banners hung from the walls, the only decoration. Following the guards inside, we were ushered into a darkened office. The room was sparse, a couple of crates with pieces of paper scattered across it, and a stone desk at the far end. There sat a dwarven woman with black hair streaked with silver, dressed in red and gray leather armor. A guard spoke to her as she sat there, writing swiftly out onto parchment set before her. The guard bowed, and made his way out of the room past us. The dwarven woman stopped writing to look up at us. She slammed her hands on the table, making me jump with the loud slam.

“All right, what riff-raff have you brought in to me this day?” The Watchmaster ordered the guards to take the chains off Gustav, Bo, and Molly. Taking off his helmet, he walked forward to the woman.

“Sorry to be a bother, but we have three individuals arrested in connection with, as you have heard so far, the deaths at the carnival performance this evening.”

She rolled her eyes.

“All right, bring them forward.” Yanked up by the guards, the three carnies stood before her. The Watchmaster bowed his head and made his exit. The dwarf stepped around her desk to face the prisoners.

“I am Norda. It is my job to keep this city safe and keep shite like what happened tonight from happening.” Her eyes narrowed at Gustav. “I approved your second time on the outskirts of our town and you have killed two of my people. What have you to say about yourselves?”

“Exactly how did we kill them, exactly?” Molly asked, eyes darting from Norda’s to the floor. She looked at Molly for a passing moment, before turning back to Gustav.

“I have been told by my guard that you gave performance, and as part of this performance  
you released two beasts into the midst of the population.”

“Well, technically, he wasn’t part of the performance, technically he was saving everyone.” Jester pointed at Molly. Norda’s eyes settled on her. “…Technically.”

“Thank you.” Molly said, “Yes, you see–“

“--I’m so sorry, my liege.” Gustav interrupted, “Please, I take full responsibility for what happened this evening on myself. These people around me had nothing to do with this. They are not part of the carnival, they were just merely helping. It is my carnival, and whatever judgement there lies, I take upon myself and my head.”

Bo strained forward a step against the guards,

_“Gustav, what are you doing?”_

_“Shut. Up. Please.”_

Gustav recovered and looked back to Norda.

“Whatever judgement there is, put it upon me,” He bowed his head.

“Is that the case? Is he the only one?” Norda asked, looking hard at Bo and Molly.

“…Oh, are you waiting for me to speak? Yes, he’s the only one.” Norda narrowed her eyes at Molly’s flippant reply, while Molly did his best to avoid eye contact.

“Keep these two downstairs.” She pointed to Bo and Gustav. “This one let go. We’ll be talking to you very soon.”

Molly let out a breath of relief, as the guards removed his chains. The other carnies were quickly pulled out of the room—Gustav and Molly barely catching a glance.

“Well, you’re out of chains! That’s great. Doesn’t mean you’re absolved of the investigation. So, where are you staying? You and your compatriots?” Norda gestured back to us.

“Well, technically we just all met, technically.” Jester explained.

“Well, _technically_ , as far as I’m concerned, you’re all together as part of this investigation.”

“We’re a group you guys!” Jester practically squealed, looking overjoyed. Fjord sighed, while Molly looked amused.

“More like we’re babysitting.” I muttered. It went unheard as Norda spoke over me.

“So we’re going to have our investigators come to wherever you’re staying, which looks to be the Nestled Nook?”

“That’s correct.” Fjord said.

“All right. Don’t leave the city. We’ll be in touch.”

“Great, I really like it here so that’s good that we get to stay so long.” Jester smiled. Norda looked over to Molly, who still stood in the center of the room.

“Do you have something to say?” Norda asked, pointedly.

“No. Just shocked to see someone die in front of me not more than–“

“--I can assure you, we’re here to cause no trouble. We will be as compliant as we possibly can be.”

“Good. Dismissed!”

She slammed the table again and I jumped.

“She needs to stop doing that.” Jester noted, quietly. The four of us found ourselves in the street. With how dark it was, it was probably midnight. 

“Mollymauk, I don’t mean to pry into your business, but has this ever happened to you before?” Fjord asked. Mollymauk shook their head.

“This has never– anything like this has ever happened before. And thank you. For the record, I don’t owe any of you anything–“

“Oh, I don’t know about that.” Fjord raised an eyebrow.

“–I swear, but thank you, and I’m ready to help with this.”

“If it makes you feel better, you could probably repay Jester in fortunes.” I pointed to Jester with my thumb.

“Do you think it was the little girl?” Jester asked. Molly looked affronted.

“No! That’s an act, that’s not anything. It’s just a show!”

“Right, the large toad that was with the girl, what’s the story there?” Fjord asked.

“It’s nothing special, it’s just a guy making a buck, all right? He’s fine!”

I could hear footsteps approaching and looked to the source of the noise. I stared, not even wanting to understand what I was seeing.

“By the way, where’s the obnoxious one? The really loud–

“Found her.” I pointed.

Beau was being pulled towards the building, in chains, much more roughly than they had ever been with Gustav, Bo, and Molly. The chains were taut so she couldn’t move, and the guards looked serious, but strained.

“Help.”

“What happened?” Jester gasped. Beau kept her eyes on us.

“Help. Help help help. Help help. Help help help.” I heard Mollymauk snicker next to me. “Help. I’m with you, I’m with you. Help help.”

“Oh, I thought you didn’t like jails.” Jester cocked her head.

“Help.”

“You know, I was snarky earlier,” I began, as we watched Beau be pulled into the stockade building, “And I joked that now we were babysitting Mollymauk. I sincerely apologize. I should’ve realized we’re babysitting Beau.”

“And doing a bad job of it.” Fjord said. “C’mon, let’s go after her.”

“I’m going to be very helpful and not go in there with the two of you while you try and get her out.” Molly declared. “I’ll stand guard.”

Before we reached the door, Fjord whirled around and pointed an accusatory finger at Mollymauk.

“Don’t. Leave.”

“I have nowhere to go.” Molly shrugged.

“I’m not good with people maybe I should stay, make sure he doesn’t lea—”

“—come on.”

With a yank, Fjord had pulled me inside the building with them.

Instead of Beau being brought to the Lawmaster’s office, she was immediately brought towards stairs leading to a basement floor. Before we could follow, the guard watching the front entrance stopped us.

“I’m sorry, where are you going?”

“It was a busy day for us. Unfortunately, we’re partially responsible for this one as well. Bad luck.” Fjord explained.

“We’re not happy about it.” I added.

“She was also helping to save a lot of people. Big misunderstanding.” Jester chimed in. The guard looked between the three of us.

“Well, see her into her cell and please exit the vicinity.” The guard decided. Fjord nodded.

“Fair enough.”

“Appreciate that.”

The guard followed us to Beau’s jailcell. I heard a mumur, and saw Fjord muttering to Jester. The two of them were the closest of our accidental group, having been traveling together since before we met up in Trostenwald. It was that closeness that made it easy to ignore any asides they had between them. But it was also that closeness that, without Beau, made me feel like I was third-wheeling.

The basement smelled like mildew and piss. Two rows of cells stood with iron bars, about ten cells in total. Resting in corners we could see figures of sleeping prisoners. I couldn’t tell if it was always so dark down here, or if it was dark because it was just past midnight.

“It smells like Caleb down here.”

“Pfft—” I tried to cut off my laughter. Jester definitely knew how to break a tense moment.

The closing of a far cell echoed in the chamber, and moving closer we could see it held Gustav and Bo. Feeling somber again, we stepped to the cell next door and saw Beau being shoved inside.

“Are they not going to take her to see the Lawmaker?”

“I know, why doesn’t she get to talk to the Lawmaster?”

The guard finished locking the cell.

“Because she decided not to come helpfully.”

“What do you mean?” Jester asked.

“Ah, oh, no you misunderstood. See that was just, I have this spasm that has this twitch. It was an injury from, like, a childhood thing.” Beau said.

“Oh no, are you guys making fun of her because of her spasm?”

I kept a straight face as Jester looked up at the guards with sad, puppy-dog eyes, the picture of innocence.

“Yeah that’s actually–“ Beau sniffled, “It was very sensitive for me. I had a really tough childhood. I was just trying to find a bathroom.”

The three guards walked away, not caring in the slightest. A man from the hall entrance, instead, walked up to us. He had a larger build, a bushy beard, and judging by the key ring at his hip was probably the jailor.

 “Oh well, if you want to be patient, I’m sure the Lawmaster will be here sometime in the morning and you can discuss whatever this business is. But if you want to say goodbye, now’s the time.” He said.

I _definitely_ didn’t plan on staying the night.

“Actually, we were just upstairs and it would really help us if we could, perhaps, expedite the process. Perhaps there’s an arrangement we could come to if she could see the Lawmaster now?” Fjord asked, sounding very professional. 

“Yeah it’s not going to help my spasm to sleep on the floor, man. It’s an injury. I’m injured!” Beau added, gripping the bars of her cell.

“An audience is all we’re asking for. No favors.”

“Yeah, this is just a wrong time, wrong place thing.”

The jailor looked between Beau and Fjord.

“All right, but if she gets angry, it’s not on me.” He warned. Beau let out a breath of relief, while Fjord nodded in thanks.

“I understand. Thank you for your understanding.

“She’s a very calm person. I’ve never seen her angry, ever.” Jester commented. I wasn’t sure if she was talking about the Lawmaster or Beau. The jailor whistled, and a crownsguard ran up.

“I’m sorry. Could you go and fetch the Lawmaster? They are requesting an audience. If she gets angry, just add it to this one’s sentence.” He pointed to Beau. The guard exited, and it didn’t take long before we could hear a familiar dwarven voice cursing as she descended the stairs. She had her coat on, likely about to leave the building before we had summoned her.

“Beau, remember your little sister.” Fjord warned quickly.

Norda arrived, saw us, and looked the picture of exasperated.

“Okay, so you’ve returned, apparently, needing to poke into what business now before I go off and get some food?”

“I do hate to trouble you again, twice in the same evening. It’s incredibly inconvenient.” Fjord tried to sympathize.

“I hate _being_ troubled twice in the same evening.”

“If we may, this sweet girl here was also part of our party and she is quite the protective one. I’m afraid that she was also providing aid to our fellows in that tent. I’m afraid her younger sister was attacked in a similar way. I feel it’s only prudent to acknowledge that she was trying to protect this young dwarven girl that performed in the circus. She means no harm.”

“It was an adopted sister.” Jester chimed in.

“I practically raised her. It’s a sensitive subject.” Beau agreed. I glanced nervously between the three of them. Beau and Jester seemed to misunderstand Fjord’s lie, and I was worried that Beau would be assumed to be part of the carnival and stay locked up.

“She tends to project that, on any young girls we come across. Gets very protective. You can ask the fishermen down at the loch, we saved a young girl from an attack just the other day.” I rambled, trying to cover.

Norda looked between us all, then faced a guard.

“Is this true?” She asked.

“It appeared to us that she was attempting to escape upon us trying to bring calm to a very tense situation, but I’ll leave it in your realm, Lawmaster.”

“And were you attempting to escape?” Norda asked Beau.

“We had already been told we were free to go as long as we stayed in town for the investigation.” I answered instead.

“She’s staying at the same place that we are.” Jester added.

“Indeed. And we can be found at any hour. The Nestled Nook Inn is where we are.” Fjord said. Beau nodded.

“And I’m more than willing to be compliant with the investigation.”

Norda rubbed at her eyes in tired frustration.

“I just want to sleep.”

“Indeed. It would give us no greater pleasure than to get out of your hair.” Fjord said.

“Fine. We’ll have guards posted at the outside of the inn. You’re not to leave until this investigation is complete. It may take days. Until we find out who’s responsible for these deaths and bring them to justice, you are not to leave the tavern.”

“The _tavern?”_ Before I could protest, Fjord put a hand on my shoulder.

“Understood.”

“Like, at all during the day, even?” Jester asked, “Just a question. If we wanted to shop or something. Not okay?”

 _“Not until this is done.”_ Norda seethed.

“Cool.”

“Because otherwise, you’re welcome to stay here, instead.”

“It is really beautiful here, but I think I’d rather stay at the inn?”

Fjord and I nodded rapidly.

“Indeed we would. This is most gracious of you, Lawmaster Norda.” Fjord said, clearly trying to schmooze.

“……Get them the fuck out.”

She turned around and heavily stomped out of the chamber. The jailor opened the cell door and Beau walked quickly out. The jailor looked a bit confused and yet amused at the same time, while the guards just looked annoyed. They hastily escorted us out and back onto the street, where Mollymauk was sat on the steps, fiddling with his cards. He jumped up and joined our walk as the guards escorted us all the way back to the Nestled Nook Inn. As we walked in, I turned and saw the guards station themselves at either side of the door.

“You should have spasmed a couple times on the way here.” Jester said.

“Aw, shit.” Beau swore.

“Yeah. Opportunity missed.”

Beau turned to Fjord.

“My _little sister?_ What the what?”

“She’s a dwarf! She’s human!” Jester agreed. Fjord looked between them, confused.

“What? No, I was trying to say she had a little sister that had a similar incident and that made you try to protect Toya. I was trying to throw you a bone!”

“Oh. You didn’t make that clear at all.”

“No, I got it!” I argued. Fjord gestured to me.

“Luckily, Serasai was able to cover for it.” He said.

“And you’re free! You’re welcome.” I added.

“I was just trying to go with what you said.” Beau let out a huff. Fjord gave a lopsided grin.

“Yeah. You did all right.”

“All right. I mean, it kind of worked. But you’re not entirely wrong! I was trying to go get the stupid little girl, who seemed to be _stupid_.”

“Did you see anything?”

“I tried to save her. I was like, _get the hint,_ what’s going on?”

Jester looked confused.

“Why would you save her? She turned those people into zombies.”

Beau stammered, unable to come up with a solid reason.

“We don’t know that.” Fjord argued.

“I mean, she could have.” Jester crossed her arms.

“She didn’t.” Mollymauk said. Jester looked over to the other Tiefling, who had yet to speak since we’d left the stokades.

“Oh, hi! You’re here.” Jester looked overjoyed, while Beau looked happy to have someone else to shove the conversation onto.

“Yeah, if anything, we should be looking at this guy. Why are we putting our neck out for you?”

It was a fair question. We’d only met him this morning. Then again, I’d only met the others yesterday.

“You’re putting your neck out for Toya for some strange reason and I don’t know why, she’s perfectly capable of handling herself.” Molly said, airily.

“Have you been to this town before?” Fjord asked. Molly’s eyes narrowed as he tried to think back.

“Not that I can remember. They all look _the same_ after a while.”

“And you’ve never seen conditions like this affect any other carnival goer before?”

“Nothing like this. Hundreds, possibly thousands of shows. Yeah, _thousands_ of shows. Nothing. Never. It’s not us.”

“So great!” Jester interrupted, “We’re stuck in a city that has zombie issues, that’s all.”

“And since it’s not us, it’s going to _keep_ having zombie issues.” I added. Fjord looked around the near-empty tavern.

“Where are the other two?” He asked.

“Which other two?” Molly asked.

“The stinky one and the little one.”

“Caleb and Nott?” I asked. Molly’s eyes lit up in recognition.

“Oh, your friends! …You call them Stinky and the little one? All right.”

“They’re not actually our friends. We met them, like, twenty minutes before we met you and Yasha.” I explained.

“I wonder if they came back.” Fjord muttered.

“I’ll go up and ask the tavern keeper!” Jester said as she bounded over to the bar. We watched Jester and the bartender chatter for a second.

“Weird question, is there a reason Yasha ran for it, but you’ve decided to stick around?” I asked.

“Aside from me being in chains when she ran?”

“I know, but you still could have ditched us at the stockades. Like you said, you don’t owe us anything.”

“Well if someone doesn’t clear the carnival’s name, the guards will use us as a scapegoat. That’s how these things work. And my best chance of figuring any of this out is with you lot. You were there when it happened, and you’re not bad with a blade.”

“Neither are you.” I said. He grinned, and I looked back to Jester. “Safety in numbers anyway.”

“They’re here!” Jester called over. She walked back towards us.

“They are?” Fjord asked.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

“…so we heading to bed or grabbing a table?” I asked. I hadn’t allowed myself to enjoy the buzz from the beer tour since the carnival went sideways, forcing sobriety through the fight and jailhouse negotiations.

“I’m all for grabbing a table and getting some drinks.” Mollymauk said, already headed towards the tables we had occupied earlier.

“I could use one too, after that shit jailcell.” Beau agreed. The group of us joined in, Fjord pulling up a chair to seat the five of us. Just as we did, we heard footsteps falling down the stairs. We looked up to see Caleb and Nott coming down.

“Oh, thank God you’re here and safe!” Nott beelined over to us. “We missed you! Somehow we got separated! Friends.”

I looked at her, then over to the rest of the party. It was clear all of us could tell she was lying.

“That happens, yes.” Jester said, letting it pass.

“You guys peaced out pretty quickly.” Beau, however, wasn’t going to let it slide that easy.

“We did,” Caleb admitted, “I did not come to Trostenwald to go to jail.”

“What did you come to Trostenwald for?” Fjord questioned.

“We are tired. We’ve been traveling a long time. We’ve been saving. Wanted to take it easy for a few days.” Caleb said.

“Sure, I’m not trying to pry. I was just curious where you were going.”

“Just curious why you have a mask.” Beau’s eyes narrowed at Nott. Molly slammed his hands onto the table, making me jump.

“If I’m going to listening to somebody’s life story I’m going to need a drink.” He raised a hand, calling to a barmaid. “You, gorgeous, what’s your name?”

“Adelaine.”

“Adelaine, I would like a round for all these terrible people and one for myself. What’s the difference between these three beers? I’ve honestly got to admit, they all taste the same to me.”

“Go with the Von Brandt.” Adelaine recommended. Mollymauk looked torn.

“They had my favorite, on the brewery tour we did. But it depends on the brew.” I added my two-cents. Molly gave a nod.

“Let’s get a round of Von Brandt for everybody.

“Actually, if it’s all the same I’m not really an ale fan. Do you have any fire whiskey?” Fjord asked.

“We can get you some liquor, aye.”

“Can I have some milk?” Jester asked, beaming.

“Two, please.” Nott held up two fingers. Adelaine looked between our group, making sure she got the changed order, then looked to Molly for confirmation.

“All right.”

“Would you mind if we pulled these tables together?” I asked quickly, before she could leave.

“As long as you put it back before you head to bed, makes no difference to me.” She shrugged.

“Great idea! We can all sit together!” Jester cheered. I got up, as did the others, and easily pushed the two tables into one. I sat back down between Fjord and Beau. “You think she heard that I wanted milk?”

“I think she did. We can ask again if she doesn’t bring it.” I said.

“I’m going to ask for one of each of these beers because I want to have a tasting competition.” Molly decided, looking around the table, “I’m not going to be drinking alone.”

“Bud, I’m about two away from being drunk, don’t tempt me.” I warned. That seemed to only make him grin wider.

“Caleb, you want to see something cool?” Jester said, peering around Nott.

“I would love to see something cool.”

Jester pointed down at the side of her table, and Caleb looked. Now that it was pointed out, it was clear there was an etching in the wood of a cartoon dick, which I remembered Jester drawing it yesterday.

“Yeah! Bringing it back.” Beau cheered. I chuckled, and even Caleb broke a smile.

“That’s pretty good. Have you always been an artist?”

“I have actually, I’ve been an artist since I was little.”

Adelaine came around the tables with our drinks, temporarily silencing the discussion about dicks. But once she was gone with the order for a few more drinks, Mollymauk started it back up again.

“You think that’s what they look like?” He asked, gesturing to the etching. Jester looked at him with a leveling stare.

“I’ve seen a lot of dicks. That is what most of them look like.”

Mollymauk hid a laugh behind his cup of Von Brandt.

“So where do you two come from?” Caleb asked. Jester and Molly looked at each other, and back to Caleb.

“Us two?” Jester asked, her head tilted.

“Yes, you two with the horns.”

“Well, I don’t know where he comes from. You think we all come from the same place? That was really inconsiderate.”

“No, you are very different it’s very clear.” Caleb chuckled, uncomfortably.

“He’s purple.” Jester pointed.

“She’s blue.” Molly pointed.

“Which is pretty rare.”

“He’s every color.” Caleb said.

“It’s very true.” Molly agreed.

“It’s pretty.” The whole table turned to me.  “…sorry, I like your peacock tattoo a lot.”

“Thank you.” Molly grinned. 

 “I’m from Nicodranas, to answer your question.” Jester said to Caleb.

“I’m from the circus!” Molly held his tankard up in a solo cheer.

“So you’re a traveler then?” Caleb asked.

“Oh yeah. Quite a while.”

“Since childhood?”

There was a pause as Molly thought for an answer.

“Long as I can reasonably remember at the very least. It’s been a while. It’s nice. I like it. They’re good people. Work hard.”

“You have a lot of scars.” Caleb pointed out. It was true; Molly did very little to hide them, with his shirt nearly completely open.

“That’s a very funny story, actually.” Molly grinned widely.

“I like funny stories.” Fjord said, leaning forward.

“Me too.”

There was a long pause as we all thought Molly was going to speak further.

“You did some crazy shit with that sword of yours.” Fjord said. I nodded enthusiastically. That ice magic had been brutal to witness.

“Thank you. These swords– you buy a drink and we’ll see.”

“You polish off that one already?”

With that question, Mollymauk knocked back his ale and chugged. He set it back on the table, empty.

“Wow, that’s a lot– okay.” Jester said, surprised.

“Can we get another round? For the–“ Fjord called over the Adelaine.

As sober as the events of the carnival and stockade had made me feel, it didn’t change the fact I was going on at least my sixth beer of the night, from the pub crawl and afternoon. I was fairly good at looking sober, but I was starting to slip a little.

“Hi Frumpy, nice to see you again.” Nott said, the cat having jumped up onto her shoulder.

“Mother always told me to never give a story away for free.” Molly said, pointing at Fjord with his tankard.

“Wise words.” Fjord agreed.

“My mother said don’t give away other things for free.” Jester chimed in. Molly smiled.

“I already like your mother.”

“My mother always said nothing in life is free.” Beau said, shrugging.

“…I can tell.”

“None of this absolves the dodgy goblin who slinked past that first question!” Beau rounded on Nott, “Where are you from? What are you traveling from? Why the mask?”

“Only because we seem to find ourselves in quite the predicament.” Fjord said, sounding apologetic.

“We’re just a couple of friends, strolling around the countryside looking for adventure.” Nott claimed, still clearly lying.

“Sure you are.”

“Do you see many goblins walking around cities here?” Caleb huffed.

“It has nothing to do with that. People who move from place to place frequently tend to have other stories as to why they’re doing it.” Beau argued.

“Then why are _you_ travelling?” I asked. Beau looked over to me in surprise.

“…I asked first!”

Caleb looked to her with a level stare. “Well, let me make it clear: goblins are not typically welcome in any cities, that is why the mask.”

“Well, you’re going back to the goblin thing. I’m more curious about the travel thing.”

“We have a string of bad luck.” Nott said. It sounded more like a confession. “We tend to get in trouble in places for various reasons. Some of which is my fault. Most of which is my fault. I have sticky fingers. I can’t help myself sometimes. I’m fascinated by little bobbles and fancy pieces of jewelries and I love trinkets so much!” Her eyes got wider the more she listed, “I just have to take them, and have them with me, and put them in my pockets. It’s gotten us in a few scrapes a couple times. Caleb, he is fantastic. Very patient with me, understands. But really it’s my fault; it’s not him. He’s a smart man, a brilliant magician! Have you seen? Some of his tricks are phenomenal, really.”

“No, I’d love to.” Fjord said.

“I feel bad too because we never stay in one place long enough for him to have a decent shower.”

The rest of us held back laughter to various degrees of success.

“It’s a moving story.”

I noticed Beau and Molly both rifling through their pockets, and realized they were checking to see if Nott had lifted anything from them. I did the same, a glance in my bag proving everything was in its place.

“Anyway, that’s the long and short of it.”

“What do you do with the things once you steal them?” Jester asked.

“Well the nice ones I keep. I have a little–“

“Do you have a collection!?” Jester interrupted. Nott nodded, excited at first, but then deflated.

“I collect a lot of things, but in the last place we hunkered down, it was all taken from me We were in one of those prisons before– Am I sharing too much?” Nott looked to Caleb, “I’m sharing too much, aren’t I?”

Before Caleb could answer, Nott continued, “We were in a prison, they took all of our  
belongings. I lost all of my collections. I had a lovely rock collection. I had a rare coin  
collection. I had a stick collection. Yeah, it’s all gone now.”

“What about shiny things, though?” Jester asked.

“I love them. I just don’t have any right now.”

“Because I think if you have sticky fingers for sticks and rocks, I don’t think that will get you in trouble.”

Jester had a point. Only some people cared for certain types of rocks, rock collectors, but I couldn’t imagine people getting overly upset about Nott snagging branches for her stick collection.

“True. But they were like people’s canes and things.”

The group of us burst into laughter, Caleb hiding his face behind his hand, and Nott looking unbothered by our reaction.

“I mean I call them sticks because I don’t need them. But I suppose they really needed them.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Molly commented. It reminded me of a couple hours ago when Molly had asked for Beau’s “walking stick”.

“Wait, I’m sorry. I think I need clarification. If sticks mean things like valuable canes, what do rocks mean to you?”

“You know those rocks that humans wear on their fingers and around their necks and stuff? They’re really nice rocks.”

I chuckled to myself, finishing my beer.

“We don’t have many of those at the moment.” Caleb said, looking amused despite himself.

“Would it be fair to say that the more someone desires something, the more you’re interest increases?” Fjord asked.

“Oh I don’t care about the people who have them. I just like pretty things. Toys, anything really.”

“I’ll keep an eye out for things that you would like.” Jester said, kindly.

“Okay! Can you help with that?”

“I can if you want me to. Or I can point it out.”

“Is it the joy of taking the things or do you just like gifts?” Beau asked. After the discovery of Nott’s “stick” collection, the lot of us were much more interested in this.

“No, it’s the collecting.”

“It’s like a nervous tick a little bit.” Caleb tried to explain.

“Are you good at it? Do you get caught very often?” Fjord asked.

“Well, would you like a demonstration?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter may be potentially late, due to my health and schoolwork. Thanks for understanding! 
> 
> Serasai still needs a name for a town to be from, and any suggestions for a name of a large, coastal town on the Menagerie Coast would be appreciated! Otherwise I will probably use a name generator.


	5. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, the adventurers had regrouped at the Inn to share a drink and plan a way to clear their names...

“Yes!” Jester cheered.

“Now, Jester, if I may, we are already in a little bit of a pickle.” Fjord warned. Jester ignored him.

“Steal something from me! Do you want me to close my eyes?”

“…Sure! That’ll make it really easy. Are they closed?”

Jester shut her eyes tight.

“Yeah!”

“All right. Out of practice here.” Nott stood up, grabbing a shot from the counter and downing it. She cracked her knuckles, and then walked over to Jester.

“Just don’t take the thing on my waist, because he’ll be pissed.” Jester said, eyes still scrunched up. Nott stopped, hand in mid-air reaching toward her.

“He’ll be pissed? What?”

“Yeah.”

“…He?”

“Yeah.”

All of us looked down at Jester’s waist. There was a small bauble I’d paid little attention to earlier, that looked almost like a geometric painter’s palette.

The group of us watched Nott nod, then slip her hand into Jester’s side pocket. She rummaged around. I raised a brow as I watched; for something she considered to be her “specialty” she didn’t seem particularly great at it. I wouldn’t be as judgmental if it wasn’t something I had experience with myself.

“You’re doing great!” Jester said, clearly able to tell what Nott was doing.

“This is not how it usually works!” Nott pulled her hand back, frustrated, “The person is not really expecting it. This is embarrassing, really. I have the one skill and I failed at it.”

“It’s okay, you can keep practicing.”

“There is that one magic trick that you’re able to do. Would you like to show them the magic trick that you can do?” Caleb asked. Nott looked over to him, looking vaguely confused before Caleb pulled out a red ceramic bowl. Nott’s eyes widened, and Caleb pulled out a copper piece.

“Here, you know the trick, right?” Caleb asked, handing the bowl and coin over to her.

“Yes, I know the trick. Takes a little bit of time, doesn’t it?”

“You’re good.”

“Okay.” Nott took a breath, “I do know one piece of magic. Feast your eyes–“ Nott hopped up onto a stool, “On the sacred money pot of school. If you place a copper piece into this pot and say the magic words– _what’s the magic word again?_ ” She hissed to Caleb.

“Fibulous—"

“--Fibulous! It will turn into a silver piece.”

“Should I say it?” Jester asked, excited.

“I want to hear you say it, anyway.” Fjord chuckled. Nott paused, looking thoughtful.

“…Only _I_ can say it!” Nott decided. Fjord and I laughed. “For everyone has their own magic word, and it won’t work with you.”

Nott began to make some strange noises, vocalizing and waving a hand over the bowl.

“By the ancient order of the school… _fibulous!”_ Nott lifted the coin, which gleamed silver.

“That is a silver coin right there.” Caleb said, proudly.

“ _Oh my gosh!--_ Wait a minute. Does this mean the silver I won from you was actually copper?”

“No, it only works up.”

“Great! Thanks for the silver.” Jester reached out an open palm, waiting for the coin.

“…Well, no, we weren’t giving you the silver piece just showing you a bit of magic. This pot is actually quite powerful. It can do that once a day, so if you’d like to purchase it…?” My eyes narrowed. Something about this seemed off.

“Can you turn this into a gold piece?” Jester asked.

“Well, it only works once a day.”

“Well, tomorrow can you make it gold?”

“I think it only does the copper to silver?”

“The magic is not that strong.”

“Yes, it’s a mild magic pot. But if you’d like to purchase it from us, we can sell it to you for five gold.”

“Five gold for one silver a day? That doesn’t add up.”

“By the end of the week you made your money back.” Fjord reasoned. Jester shook her head at his bad math.

“No.”

“At discount for friends, three gold.” Nott tried.

I raised my hand, murmuring a familiar spell, drawing figures in the air out of faint purple light now glowing from my fingertips. When the spell sigil was complete, my eyes glowed the same faint purple, and I looked around. My satchels and potions glowed with the same energy—now visible to me. Fjord’s falchion glowed as well, I noted. I saw Caleb’s eyes widen a fraction, and I assumed he recognized the spell. My eyes fell on Nott’s pot. It looked unchanged.

“Not to rain on the parade, but the pot’s not magic. Lovely trick though.” I smirked.

“You lied?” Jester asked. She didn’t look upset.

“…One gold!” Nott said, offering the pot.

“You can tell stuff is magic or not?” Beau asked, looking at me.

“Yeah. It’s helpful for alchemy. Lets me find ingredients faster, know I’m not getting cheated…” I waved my hand flippantly, cancelling out my spell.

“How come you didn’t check out his cards earlier?” Beau jutted out her chin to point at Molly.

“I knew what I was paying for then: Fun. Jester deserved to know what she was paying for too.” I shrugged. Molly’s cards hadn’t glowed when I’d had the spell up—at least I hadn’t noticed.

“You’ve been asking a lot of questions, but I’ve got some questions for you.” Nott said, putting the bowl down. Beau looked over.

“You have questions for me?” She asked.

“Yeah! How does someone like you – you’re human right?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“How do you come by learning Halfling?”

“My parents were in the winery business. The wine making business. And halflings really like wine.”

“Everyone likes wine!” Nott argued. Beau shrugged.

“That’s true.”

“Some people more than others.” Fjord added.

“Some halflings just deal in wine a lot, and a lot did in the town that I’m from and then my parents wanted me to keep up with the books and all that stuff so it forced me to learn halfling. I was around it a lot.”

“What town was that then?” Nott questioned.

“It’s close by here, right?” Jester looked over. Beau shrugged again.

“It’s a bit aways. It’s Kamordah.”

“Hmm, haven’t heard of it.” Nott said, sounding unconvinced.

“It’s a small farming town, it’s no big deal. It’s whatever.”

“Nothing shady there!” Nott leaned back in her chair, plopping back to sit.

“Nope, just a wandering traveler just like the rest of y'all. Speaking of, where are you from again?” Beau asked, rounding back on me.

“Port Zoon.” I said easily. Beau nodded slowly, recognizing the name. “It’s on the Menagerie Coast, not far west from here.”

“Huh.”

“Well I mean I was really impressed with the little trick, I mean, bowl might not have been magic, but there was magic there. I sure would like to see a big trick.” Fjord said, changing the subject. Jester beamed, and with a huge WHAP all the windows swung open.

I sighed, cradling my face in my hand.

I could hear a rush of people coming inside, and opened an eye to see the Crowns Guard that had been stationed outside were now looking around wildly for the source of the windows. They clearly expected to find conflict. Instead they were greeted with our merry band in various states of drunkenness looking over at them, trying to seem innocent.

 “Sorry! Drinking!” Mollymauk quickly explained, holding up two glasses of ale, “I did order two extra. Two extra?”

The guards sneered at his offer and slowly slunk out of the bar.

“You’re no fun.” Molly half-pouted.

“I’ll take one.” I said, giving myself over to drunkenness. He slid one across the counter to me.

“Yeah, circus! Woo, circus coming to town!” Beau cheered, trying to pass of the Thaumaturgy again. Fjord leaned over to Jester.

“Jester, I meant a trick from Caleb.” He explained.

“Oh.”

“You want to see a trick?” Caleb asked.

“I would love one.” Fjord nodded.

“I can show you a trick. Young lady, if you would assist me please.” I looked up groggily, not sure who he was asking until Nott hopped up in front of me. “Step up onto the table.”

“Absolutely!”

“Just don’t break anything.” Beau said.

“Or do.” I grinned.

Caleb began to weave on of his hands in a slow circle around the other. A small globe of light began to form, then suddenly blew into a bigger orb of gold light in his hand. Center-table, Nott stood with her arms and feet outstretched.

Another orb began to form, circling the first, orbiting.

“I feel it coming! Hit me!” Nott cheered.

Two more orbs quickly shot out, all of the circling lights coming together in the form the frame of a person. The small form of light ran the short distance to Nott, colliding and enveloping Nott in golden light. Nott sang a Ta-da as we began to clap.

“The Goblight, ladies and gentlemen. The Goblight!”

“Pfffft I love it.” I broke, not able to stop myself from laughing at the pun.

“Thank you!” Nott bowed as we applauded, other patrons scattered about the empty tavern clapping too, drunkenly praising the performance.

“How did you learn to do that?” Fjord asked, leaning forward. Caleb shrugged.

“I could always do that a little bit, as a kid. I was always good with magic. I had a knack for it. That one’s easy.”

“That’s impressive.”

“Well, thank you.” Caleb said, looking sheepish. Jester nudged Fjord.

“Maybe he can teach you how to do that.”

“Is it something that can be taught to others?”

“Are you trying to learn magic?” Molly asked, “Is that a thing?”

“Yeah, it’s a thing. Reading.” I slurred.

“Well, I’m just a little curious about how people use their magic.” Fjord said.

“I’ve seen you have a few tricks up your sleeve. You seem like you’re not totally magic inept.” Beau shrugged.

“No, it’s relatively new for me though, so I’m just trying to learn.”

“Are you reading a lot? Like Serasai, I also learned most of my magic from reading about it, studying it.” Caleb nodded to me.

“No, I wonder if maybe I should be?”

“Well, it could be helpful. Although, I’m a bit of an amateur teacher. I taught Nott the one trick you saw, but other things. We’ve been working together, I suppose I could try to help you.”

“Have you had your abilities your whole life, like a kid?” Beau asked.

“No. Again, fairly recently.”

“Something happen?”

“Yeah.”

It was quiet for a beat. _I am going to need help getting upstairs to our rooms._

“Oh, I’m sorry, do you two not know each other super well? You seem like you do.”

“We got a good 24-48 hours on the rest of you.”

“Yeah, we’re not super deep.”

“Nope.”

“And you, Serasai?” I looked over slowly, seeing Caleb look at me expectantly.

“Same. Met them yesterday.”

Jester leaned over to me.

“Technically since it’s past midnight it was two days ago, now. Technically.”

I groaned and put my arms on the table, cradling my head.

“You holding up?” Fjord asked.

“You’re really blitzed, aren’t you?” Molly followed up.

“Yeah.” I said, answering both of them.

“Got any embarrassing, revealing stories to share?”

I looked up to see Molly smirking, looking like he was half-joking.

“If I did I’d tell them to you sober. Don’t play with me.” I heard him bark out a laugh as I put my head back down on the table.

“Where did you all come from then?”

“Well I came up from the town of Port Damali.”

“That’s where we met!” Jester cheered.

“Yeah, I met Jester a while back and after I Ieft town, coming up to the northeast, I ran across her. I’d seen her do some of her magic before. That’s what I’m trying to learn about.”

“Serasai’s from Port Zoon,” Jester began, “And I’m from Nicodranas. We’ve got the whole Menagerie Coast covered, us three.”

“You still awake?” Fjord asked. I felt a hand on my shoulder.

“Yeah.” I didn’t move to look up.

“I think we need some sleep, you guys.” Jester said, yawning.

“Gustav, the person who runs the circus, is he your friend?” Caleb asked suddenly.

“He’s family.”

“He’s family?”

“We take care of each other. He’s a good man.”

“So what’s your play tomorrow?”

“Well, they have all my things and they have all my family. I’m going to figure out what is going on. Try and find out what’s actually doing this. Like we said, since it’s none of us, it’s going to happen again.”

“But how can we because we can’t leave this tavern?”

“Well, I–“

“Were Caleb and I not instructed not to leave the tavern? We received no formal instruction.” Nott asked.

“No, you weren’t part of that formal instruction. The rest of you were told not to leave the tavern until further notice.”

“I’m sure if we sleep on it, we’ll think of something.”

“Fjord! You and I could leave in the morning the same way we got in.” Jester said.

“That’s true.”

“How’d you get in?” Nott asked.

“With magic.” I could hear the smile in Jester’s voice, “I would show you now, but I’m  
out of spells!”

“All right. Hey bitches, I’m going to go to bed. Sera?” Jester asked.

“Huh?”

“You coming up with me?”

“Yeah thanks.” I stood up slowly, the world spinning. It felt nice, even if I was tired.

“Where exactly am I going to be sleeping, by the way?” Molly asked, “I can sleep down here, but it might be nice–“

“Molly, if you would like to share my room, you can.” Fjord offered.

“If he’d like to share my room _please do_.” I flirted.

Everyone turned to look at me.

“Fuck, sorry, I make easy jokes when I’m drunk.” I stumbled, Jester at my side, balancing me. “You’re strong...” I trailed off, looking at her. 

Jester laughed. I saw Molly shake his head, amused. He turned to Fjord.

“You don’t mind?” He asked Fjord, beginning to take off his swords, and shrugging off his coat.  

“See you guys tomorrow!” Jester called, as her, Beau, and I went upstairs to our room.

Once we entered, I slowly lowered myself onto my bedroll. I found my way onto my back, looking straight up at the ceiling and enjoying the world spinning around me.

Beau was getting comfortable on her bedroll, while I could hear scratching of Jester drawing away in her sketchbook.

“…Do you usually drink this much?”

I glanced over to Beau.

“Sorry,” She began, “I just—No judgement, but I don’t know you that well. Just wondering if this is like, a _thing_.”

“I drank a lot when I lived in Port Zoon.” I said. My voice sounded like it was coming from someone else. “It reminds me of the ocean.”

“Drinking reminds you of the ocean?” Beau repeated, sounding skeptical.

“Rocking of the ship.”

“Oh. Port Zoon’s a…port, town. You spent a lot of time on boats?”

“Yeah.”

“You should talk to Fjord about that!” Jester interrupted. I couldn’t see her from where I was on the floor, but I could still hear her scratching away at parchment.

“It’s not important.” I said, voice trailing off.

Beau and Jester let the subject drop. I closed my eyes and imagined being back on the ship, the occasional bumps and sounds of the tavern sounding almost enough like the creaks of the wood and the sea.

//

I woke up cold, with a headache.

“That makes sense.” I murmured. I wondered if the bar had any kind of hangover cure. Water and food, for sure. I moved up slowly, taking stock of how sick I felt.

“Morning!” Jester cheered. _She_ would _be a morning person._

“Morning.”

“Mornin’!” Beau said, smirking. “How are you?” Her voice was loud, probably trying to aggravate my hangover.

“Ready to kill some zombies.” I said, not wanting to give her the satisfaction. I stood up and forced myself to stretch out.

“Technically they’re already dead if they’re zombies, technically.” Jester said, before bouncing out the door. As we were getting ready I heard a knocking outside and heard Jester call “Ey oh ey, good morning!”

Through the open doorway I saw Nott shuffle past.

“She’s a morning person too? Jesus.” Nott muttered.

I chuckled, finishing packing up my pouches and bottles.

“Hey, Beau! Sera!” Jester’s head peeked back in the doorway.

“Yeah?”

“Do you have anything you can do to make yourself not look like you?”

I stared at her blankly, forcing myself to ignore the various jokes I could make.

Beau started moving, flipping her robes inside out. She bent down and rubbed some dirt on herself. With a tug her hairtie was removed and she grabbed a scarf of Jester’s to tie around her head. She held out her hands wide, silently asking ‘what do you think?’

“…No, you look like you with a bandana around your head.” Jester said. Fjord shook his head.

“Yeah that’s not going to cut it, not quite like what we had in mind.”

“Yeah.”

“What are you guys doing? You guys leaving? Are you guys fucking leaving? You’re not leaving without me are you?” Beau began to panic.

“No, of course, we’re coming back!” Jester said. It did nothing to stop her.

“You’re skipping town.”

“No--Oh, but we could!” Jester realized.

“They’re _right here_.” Fjord murmured.

“Okay.”

“I could skip town with you, though. Do you want to skip town?” Beau’s eyes darted between the two of them.

“We’ll be back.”

“Let’s see if Caleb and his little friend are downstairs first. He has tricks after all.” Fjord said, holding off the decision.

“Saw Nott head down a bit ago.” I piped up, already walking to the door, “I want breakfast.”

Walking down the stairs, I saw Caleb and Nott already sitting at the table from last night, Mollymauk walking over to join them from the bar.

I put a hand on Caleb’s shoulder to get his attention.

“Save me a seat.” I requested. He nodded, and I started towards the bar.

“You drinking already?” Nott asked.

“Drinking water.” I corrected, annoyed. I knew I drank a lot last night, but we had all gone on the brewery tour together. I quick order a water, along with a light breakfast, and made my way back to the table.

“--Well, I mean look at me.” Molly began digging through his bag as I slid into a seat next to Caleb. “I have a disguise kit?” He offered.

“Fair enough.”

“It’d be a little tricky for me. I look like what I’m going to look like. But the rest of you could do a little work.” Molly explained.

“Beau, I don’t want to leave you behind, but I–“ Fjord began.

“It’s true. I have a disguise kit, too. I could help you out?”

“Would you do my makeup for me?” Beau asked.

“I’m really good at makeup.”

“Are you?”

“Yeah.”

“Let’s do that.”

“Me too?” I asked.

“Of course!” Jester said, clapping excitedly.

“We could just shower this one that would be enough.” Molly joked, looking over to Caleb.

“He can leave, apparently.” Jester explained.

“Yeah, we could. But not town, we were told to stay in town.”

The waitress came over with my food and I thanked her, quickly paying her.

“What are we doing again?” Nott asked, once the waitress had left.

“We have to find out why there are zombies so we that don’t get arrested for being zombies.” Jester said.

“For making zombies.” I corrected.

“So we solve the case to clear our own name.” Nott nodded.

“Why shouldn’t we just wait for it all to blow over? We didn’t do anything.” Caleb asked.

“I tend to find these things don’t blow over necessarily as more they just eventually decide someone’s guilty and take their revenge on them.” Mollymauk said.

“And odds are they’re going to choose the circus, or us.” I said, taking a drink of water.

“Or both.” Molly agreed.

“Do you find yourself in situations like this often?” Caleb asked, directing the question to Molly.

“Not this particular one, but yes.”

“I mean, look at him. No offense or anything.” Beau said, throwing out a hand to gesture at him. I raised a brow.

“None taken, really. A little taken, but that’s fine.”

“He makes a point. I think that the sooner we find the cause of this, the sooner we can get out of here.” Fjord said, stepping up as mediator again.

“She’s right, immediately the two of us are going to get hit with this.” Molly said, gesturing between himself and Jester.  Nott looked thoughtful.

“If we solve the case we would be absolved. It’s not a terrible plan.”

“And you’re so concerned with your goblin friend,” Beau began, looking at Caleb, “I mean he’s in the same boat as the tieflings.”

“That’s a girl.” Caleb corrected.

“I know it’s hard to tell.” Jester said, patting Beau on the shoulder. Beau looked confused.

“I said your goblin friend.”

“You said he.” Jester, Caleb, and I spoke simultaneously. 

“Whatever.”

“Listen, we’ve all had a rough night.” Nott said, “I know that my features aren’t necessarily the most feminine. Among goblin kind, I understand. It’s hard to tell.”

“I can tell.” Jester nodded.

“Everybody can tell.” Caleb said, putting a hand on Nott’s.

“I’m working on it.” Beau said, as her way of apologizing.

“Let’s get out of here.” Fjord said, putting his hands on the table and standing up.

“Time to look pretty?” I asked, looking to Jester. She looked excited to do Beau and I’s makeup to the point where I was a little concerned.

“You’re already pretty, darling.” Mollymauk winked, walking past us and up the stairs towards our rooms. I stared after him, amused, but mostly confused by the compliment.

“…I need to be more careful who I flirt with drunk.”

“Yeah you invited him to bed.” Jester said bluntly.

“I remember now.”

“Like to have sex with him.”

“I know, thanks Jester.”

I stood up, grabbing a piece of toast to go.

“I can punch him or something if you want?” Beau offered, as we began walking to the stairs.

“Nah, I don’t mind flirting. I was just surprised.” I chuckled. The group of us made our way upstairs after him to get our disguises ready.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to school events updates will be every two weeks instead of every Friday, until the end of May. Thanks for reading!


	6. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, our adventurers were preparing to disguise themselves to evade the guards and launch their own investigation of the mysterious events that took place at the carnival...

“You know what I’m going to do for you? I’m going to use my disguise kit, and I’m going to give you a beard.”

_“Oh, yeah!”_

Beau rubbed her hands together, excited at the prospect of disguising as a dude for our undercover investigation.

“Yeah and I’m going to turn you into a dude, that’s a good disguise, right?” Jester asked, taking out her disguise kit.

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, and a mustache. And a hat.”

“Love it.”

“You really have to sell it though, and act like a dude.” I warned. Beau cleared her throat, and when she spoke her voice was lower and rougher.

“I think I can do that.”

Jester and I lit up at the fake voice.

“I’m going to go a step further and tape down my boobs, bandage them down all the way, you know wrap them. Stuff my crotch a little bit.” Beau said, grabbing materials and stepping into the bathroom.

When she emerged Jester set to work. A few minutes in, a slight knock at the door sounded and Mollymauk popped into the room.

“Need some assistance? I brought my kit as well.” He said, holding out a nearly identical box to Jester’s.

“Yes! We’re making Beau into a guy!” Jester said, not looking away from her work on Beau, “Can you hold this?”

Mollymauk slid up to her and the two set to work, while I sat patiently on the bed to wait for my turn.

“This kind of feels like how I imagine a girls’ night.” I said.

“Doing each other’s makeup and things?” Molly questioned. I nodded, stopping short as Jester gasped.

“Oh my gosh! We should have a girls’ night!” She said.

“Could use a spa day myself, after this whole affair is over.” Mollymauk agreed.

“Get your nails done?” I asked. With all of his colors and jewelry, I was surprised they weren’t painted already.

“What color would suit me?” He grinned widely, gesturing to his entire outfit.

“Get a rainbow!” Jester suggested. I looked him over, glancing at his hands as he worked along with Jester.

“Something iridescent.” I said, “Like dark blue, but iridescent with purple and green. You know?”

Molly looked pleasantly surprised by the suggestion, while Jester looked excited.

“Yes! My horns can look that way sometimes in the sunlight.” Jester said, moving her head back and forth to model her horns.

“Are you guys almost done?” Beau said, gruffly.

“Almost! Iridescent blue would look good on you too, Beau. And me, since it would match my horns. And you Sera, since it would be like a darker version of your bracers—Oh my gosh! We should find a bottle and all do each other’s nails the same color! Matching!!”

Jester began to ramble on excitedly, while I contented myself to just sit back and listen to the mundane chatter. It was calming to be talking about something as pointless as painting our nails together amid this investigation. Beau eventually gave up on any of her annoyance and did the same, while Mollymauk looked amused by everything Jester said. Eventually, Jester stepped back from Beau, waving her arms dramatically. “Ta-da!!!”

Beau stood in front of us, a five o’clock shadow and change of gear making her look more masculine. Because we knew it was her, it was easier to see through the disguise, but if I were a passerby or guard I would have been fooled.

“Nice!” I grinned.

“It’s good, it’s good.” Jester said, admiring her work. Then she turned to me with wide, excited eyes. “Your turn!”

“Good thing we have two kits.” Molly said, passing his to Jester. I stood up and walked over to them. The group turned to look at me critically.

“Hmm. If we put your hair up in a bun, we could hide it with a hat?” Jester suggested.

“Maybe you could be a different kind of elf? So we don’t have to hide your ears?” Mollymauk said, his hand idly touching at his own pointed ear.

“Wood Elf?” I suggested, wracking my brain for other types of Elves. I definitely couldn’t pass as an Eladrin.

“They are a bit tanner than you.” Jester said, invading my personal space and closely looking around my face.

“Throw some dirt on her.” Beau shrugged. Molly raised a hand.

“I could paint some patterning on her? The Wood Elves I’ve come across have had some green on their skin.”

“Ooo yes!” Jester handed the disguise kit back and Molly set to digging through it. “I’ll start on her hair!” Jester jumped behind me and I felt her start to undo some of my smaller braids.

Beau walked over to the mirror and started messing around, doing “manly” poses and checking out her new look. Mollymauk stepped near to me with a brush and face paint. He set to work, lightly painting along the corner of my eyes. I watched Mollymauk as he worked, and wondered if he did makeup for the carnival performers often, or at all. It was hard to tell where he was looking with his pupil-less eyes, but he looked focused, and was very careful in his movements.

Jester began braiding my hair up into a bun, but would occasionally pop around to look at Molly’s work. The two tieflings practically danced around me getting the disguise together.

“Ta-daaa!!!” Jester jumped back and Molly followed suit, both gesturing to me. Nott and Beauregard squinted at me.

“…you know, that’s actually impressive.” Beau admitted.

“WOAH!” Jester gasped, actually taking a moment to look, “You look like a whole different  person! A wood elf! As dirty as Caleb!”

I sighed, able to feel the dirt she had spattered across my face.

“I’m definitely on board with the spa thing now.” I said, and walked back to where I had dropped my bag. I dug through it and took out a light green cloak, tying it around my neck.

“You worn it out around here before?” Beau asked. I shook my head.

“No, the weather’s been too nice for it these couple of days. But it’ll work for now.”

Beau nodded, about to say more before there was a knock at the door. An old man was outside.

“It’s me, Fjord.” He said, in Fjord’s usual drawl, “Is it a good time for me to come in?”

“Yes, we’re just about done.” Mollymauk called.

Beau walked over to him.

“Fjord, how do you sound? Say words, you’re manly.”

Fjord looked at her disguise with understanding. He shifted, puffing his chest out and sat up straight. He spoke with purpose, making his voice sound even deeper and rougher than usual:

“ _Manly words.”_

_…_

_“Mirror image.”_

…

“I got _nuts._ ”

The group of us laughed, only trailing off at Molly’s voice.

“Care to give me a hand, Jester?”

The purple tiefling was holding out a different color face paint this time—tan. Jester jumped over and began helping Molly smear the paint on his face and neck, hiding his purple skin and peacock tattoo beneath layers of paint. When they were satisfied with their work, Molly pulled a black cloak around himself, yanking the hood roughly down to cover his horns and face.

“Thoughts?” Mollymauk asked.

“Surprisingly passable.” I decided, chuckling as he struggled to tuck in his colorful cloaks. I barely caught a flash of Molly’s grin under his hood.

“It should work.” Fjord nodded.

“My turn!” Jester cheered. The group of us watched with interest, although Fjord and I were watching more intently than the others. It had become clear in the last couple days that the two of us, and Caleb, were more nerdy about magic, learning everything we could and then wanting to learn more. Although my preference for magic stemmed from potions, I was always interested to see anything that changed a person’s appearance.

A blonde woman was now in Jester’s place, a stark contrast from herself. She had big, red lips, bright eyes, and large jewel rings. The only thing that let me know this was still Jester was the wide, mischievous grin on the new woman’s face.

“Is that your human face?” Beau asked.

“Yes! Aren’t I pretty?” When she asked, she sharply turned to Fjord, batting her eyelashes.

“Erhm—yes, you’re very pretty.” Fjord recovered. Jester beamed.

“Off we go then? Caleb said he was heading out to check on the crownsguard, see if they were still there. He should be waiting for us now.” Fjord explained. The rest of us followed suit, making our way down the stairs. I spotted Caleb and Nott standing near the bar, waiting for us.

We huddled around and Caleb explained that the door was being guarded by just the two crownsguard, like we had seen the day before.

“Should we try to do this, then?” Jester asked.

“In twos, or singles?” Fjord asked, pointing a finger out the door.

“Yeah, of course, not all at the same time, that’s obvious.” Jester agreed. She took a step further down the bar to Nott and Caleb, who were having a hushed conversation.

“Hi! Yes, we weren’t talking!”

I rolled my eyes, catching Beau looking at me. She shrugged.

“Do you like my outfit?” Jester asked, posing.

“Oh! What are you? I’m sorry, I’m just a young girl from the village.”

“And I’m just a young girl from town.”

“I don’t know anything. I should go get my father.”

Jester leaned in closer.

“Nott, it’s me! It’s Jester!”

Nott’s eyes widened.

“But you look like–“

“I know! This is how good I am at magic! Check me out. Are we leaving here or not?”

“Are you afraid you’ll be propositioned on the street?”

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing, turning my back on the two of them as they continued talking.

“I _am_ really attractive right now.”

“Those lips are very big.”

“I came over here to give you the blessing!”

“What is that? What does that do?”

“It helps you with your stealthing!”

“Oh, the stealthy thing, yes, thank you so much, I’ll accept it.”

“You’re welcome. Okay, that’s it. But I’ll see you outside at some point, okay? Don’t be scared, come up to me.”

“Okay.”

Beau tapped me on the shoulder and I turned back around to face the group.

“Should I go first?” Fjord asked.

“Sure!” Jester nodded.

“Are we going out in pairs? Like you said?” Beau asked, then suddenly stopped herself and spoke again with her deeper voice, “Are we going out in pairs?”

“You want to come with?” He asked Beau.

“Yeah.”

“Don’t do anything stupid.” Fjord warned, “Mouth shut, eyes forward. Show me how you walk.”

Beau did a short walk around a table. Wider steps, swinging her hands in fists.

“Maybe a little less.”

She corrected.

“That’s nice.”

The two of them set out, Fjord limping a little as he walked, and Beau managing to not overdo her manliness.

“Us next?” I asked Jester.

“Sure!”

“I might head out first, alone, just to break it up.” Mollymauk said, standing.

“Okay, sounds good.” I said, nodding.

A while passed after he left, Jester and I stood up.

“Two gorgeous ladies out on the town!” Jester said, smiling. I laughed, trying to relax as to not arouse suspicion from the guards.

“Excuse me! Stop there!”

Shit.

One of the crownsguard pulled  back my hood, revealing my face.

“I don’t recall you entering the Inn. What’s your name?”

Before I could answer, Jester interrupted.

“Oh, I am Angelica, and this is my _best friend!”_ She hugged my arm, excitedly, “We’re very close.”

“Your best friend got a name?”

“Aisha.” I answered instantly.

“What’s your business in Trostenwald?”

“We are passing through on our way to Nicodranas.” Jester lied, “Why, is there something the matter?”

The guard’s eyes darted between the two of us.

“Nothing we can’t handle. Good day, ladies.” He slowly went back to his station.

“Good day! Have a good time guarding the door!” Jester said and pulled me back out into the street.

We walked down the street, finally able to breathe a sigh of relief once we were out of view of the guards. I spot Beau first, then see Fjord’s elderly disguise hobbling alongside her. A black swish catches my eye and I see Mollymauk sliding up to them as well.

“They’re up there.” I said, pointing them out subtly to Jester.

Eventually the group of us are able to come together, and after a few more minutes Caleb and Nott join us.

“We did it! Where should we go?” Jester said, grinning excitedly.

“Let’s just keep walking for now.” Fjord decied.

“Okay. Should we walk toward the carnival where the zombies were?”

“Who was he, would be my question.” Mollymauk said.

“He?” I asked, confused.

“The guy who went zombie on us.” Beau explained.

“Oh, right. We should find out where he’s from.” Jester agreed, “How do we do that? Should we ask around and say ‘hey, anybody know where the old guy came from that turned into a zombie?’”

“That’s a good point.” Fjord admitted. Mollymauk shrugged.

“Seems to be the most appropriate thing to ask at this point.”

“Well, we could find some public places and just gossip a bit, see if anybody has heard of him, if a friend has died at the circus last night.” Caleb suggested.

“That sounds smarter than outright mentioning him. Pretending we’re a bunch of gossipy busy-bodies is less in-your-face. Less conspicuous.” I agreed.

“I mean, you mentioned no sick people.” Beau said, pointing to Molly, “If he was sick, sometimes that word gets around.”

“Maybe there is a morgue, maybe they recognized him?” Fjord suggested.

“I’d be afraid of going to the morgue. If they’re actually investigating, they’d probably have guards there.” I said. Caleb nodded.

“I agree.”

“Besides, these small towns, most everyone knows everybody else.” Mollymauk reasoned.

“Let’s go to the bazaar then, to start? Lots of people to talk to!” Jester said.

“Let’s split up and ask around?” Fjord suggested.

“In our groups from earlier, maybe?” I suggested.

“I went out alone, so I’ll go along with you two, if that’s alright with everyone?” Mollymauk said, sliding up next to Jester.

“Works for us! You can be our bodyguard!” Jester said, clapping.

//

Enon Brinjay. That was the name of the older man who had suddenly turned into a zombie. Nobody seemed to know many details about him, but he’d been an unassuming older man in good health. He was retired, the only work we heard of him doing was helping fishermen down by the dock moving their fish. It sounded like people were passing this information along because of the recent events—no-one seemed to have known him personally that we had spoken to. Most didn’t even know his name.

After we had gathered some information, we re-grouped with the others.

For all that Jester could sometimes be overwhelming with her personality, we seemed to balance each other out well when we tried to gather information. It was a variation of good-cop bad-cop, almost. We walked up to the group, looking like Jester, Mollymauk, and I were the last to join.

“…Retired fisherman?”

“He was helping.” Beau corrected.

“Do we know where he was retired from and where he was staying, maybe where he was drinking?” Mollymauk asked, “He had to go _somewhere_.”

“We asked! He went to The Old Mud Hole Tavern.” Nott said, raising her hand.

“I should point out this is the second connection to the Ustaloch.” Fjord said, looking thoughtful.

“The what?” Molly asked.

“The lake.” I explained. Fjord looked between us.

“Well, before we met up with you and your friend,” He said, recalling Yasha, “We fought off a wicked, sick water snake.”

“It came up out of the lake for some reason.” Jester said.

“Is this a metaphor or is this actually a real thing?” Mollymauk asked, looking between us.

“It really happened. I almost died.” Jester said.

“I punched a snake to death.” Beau said, jutting her chin out. Jester nodded emphatically.

“She did.”

“While it was on _fire_.”

“She did. It was Sera’s fire though, technically.”

“Don’t you remember the Serpent card?” I asked, amused. Mollymauk sighed, sounding half annoyed and half plain tired.

“A lot has happened since my last reading.”

Sounded like an excuse, but I let it go.

“There were the snakes in the circus last night, but it wasn’t related to the attack, I suppose.” Nott said quietly.

“They were halflings who looked like snakes too.” I said.

“A little different.” Jester agreed.

“How long of a snake are we talking about?” Caleb asked. I thought back to the serpent that had attacked. It had been almost eel-like in appearance, its scales slick, and a dull, dirty green in color to match the deeper parts of the lake. It had been over 10 feet long, but not by much.

“Oh, it was a giant water snake, then the little girls were complaining about more and more instances of these snakes coming out of the lake.” Beau explained.

“And this fellow who died worked with the fishermen in the lake?” Nott asked.

“Well, he took some jobs with them.” Jester said.

“So our leads are the lake and the Old Mud Hole Tavern.” Caleb said.

“Should we try the Tavern, first?” Fjord began, “I think if we’re gearing to fight anything it would be at the lake. Should get all our information together best we can first.”

The group of us agreed and began walking together to the Old Mud Hole, on the lochward side of town. It didn’t take long to reach the dive bar, and once we were there I was able to recall that we’d been there before—I just hadn’t cared enough to learn the name.

It was darker than most of the other breweries we’d hit, but smelled more of peanuts than the others as well somewhere among the smell of wet wood and ale. Just like our previous visit on our pub crawl, we were the most business it had at the moment. There were a grand total of four tables, only one of which had anybody seated; an old man playing solitaire alone.

The barkeep was thumbing through a book, only glancing up once we had already reached the bar.

“Can I help you? Are you looking for drinks? Can I get you anything?” He asked.

“Yeah, I would really love a drink.” Caleb said, “What do you have? I need something heavier than a trost. I’ve had enough trosts to last me a lifetime.”

“We have liquor.”

“I will take your liquor.”

“I will get some whiskey for you then. Whiskey, everyone?”

“Sure.” Beau said.

“Two please.” Nott murmured. The guy looked at her oddly. I put a hand on her shoulder, ignoring Nott tensing under the contact for now, and leaned over towards the barkeep, smiling.

“Make it three, thank you!” The barkeep looked carefully between us.

“We’ve been doing a pub crawl.” Mollymauk drawled.

The barkeep shrugged, and began lining up a glasses of whiskey for all of us.

After a small struggle of who’s paying, Jester slid the barkeep eight silver, which he pocketed. He slid the glasses across the bar to us. I took mine and held out in cheers to Nott, which she tentatively returned.

“Honestly, it’s been a terrible 24 hours. We were at the circus last night and I did not know him well, but old man Brinjay fell.” Caleb began. The barkeep looked back up from his book.

“Enon.” He acknowledged, a grim look coming to his face, “It’s sad to see him go, and many of us were wondering what day it was going to be.”

“Did you know him?” Caleb asked.

“He came in here most every day to drink. He’s a lonely man.”

“It was a terrible way to go. I’m sorry.”

“Doesn’t bother me one way or the other. Just sad to lose a patron.”

“Do you know who was talking to him the day of the carnival?” Jester asked.

“I don’t recall. Sometimes he would tell stories to whoever was willing to listen and not most were willing to listen.”

That sobered my mood. It reminded me of the older crew members that came in and out of port, with wicked tales of battles at sea and fearsome sea monsters. Every sailor had a story or two, even if it were just about a raging storm they managed to survive, but the stories of the older sailors were like their lifeblood. They needed to share their stories, to leave a mark, to feel a connection with someone when the friends in their stories didn’t make it to the end. If anything had been passed to me, it was the importance of listening when those stories are shared.

“--I think he came in briefly for a drink before the carnival, but that was it.”

“You know, we should drink to old stories of Brinjay.” Beau began, quickly being shushed by Fjord. I heard a glass slap the table as Mollymauk set down his empty shot-glass.

“What did the man drink, out of curiosity? What was his final drink? I’m a bit of a macabre person, myself.” Molly grinned.

“It’s this very whiskey you just had.”

I eyed my own empty glass warily.

“I’ll take one more, and I’ll get one of my own!”

“I heard he was sick, too.” Jester chimed in.

“I don’t believe he was ill. I hope not. He seemed to be rather wasting away. You shouldn’t be doing so much manual labor at that age.”

“What labor was he doing?” Nott asked.

“He carries stuff around from small tasks to–“

“--Down at the docks?”

"The docks, up at the North Ward. He carried crates, boxes. Just odd jobs, ways to get by ‘til the end of his days, which now that they’ve come, may he rest and not have to do odd jobs ever again.” He said ass he poured his own bit of whiskey. As he raised his toast the group of us did the same, Nott and I with empty glasses.

“Do you know who he was doing odd jobs for that day?” Jester asked.

“To be honest, if he did, I wasn’t paying attention.”

“I’m sure his family will miss him very much.” Caleb said, thankfully making this sound more like a real conversation than an interrogation.

“There’s nobody nearby. He had a son about 35 years ago, but he got married and went up north.”

“Did he work for any of the particular breweries around?” Fjord asked. The barkeep shrugged.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Brinjay…” Beau murmured, lost in thought.

“Where did he sit in here?” Jester asked. The barkeep pointed to an empty table to our left, and Jester went over to sit down and investigate.

“If we were to go down to the docks and ask after a few people he worked with, is there anyone you know that we should speak to, familiar of his?” Fjord asked.

“I apologize. I served him drinks and pretended to listen to him many times, but I wasn’t really paying attention.”

“I understand that.” Fjord nodded. I stayed quiet, looking down at my shot glass.

“Is there anyone who did?” Fjord and I looked over to Beau, “…That wasn’t hypothetical.”

“Maybe. I apologize. I spend most of my days reading.” He lifted his book.

“You read!” Nott said, nudging Caleb.

“Subtle, guys.” Caleb chuckled, quietly. I scanned the book’s cover, but was not able to read the language. Caleb however, seemed to.

“How’s your trashy novel? Is it a good one? No judgement.”

“It’s not trashy. It’s very tasteful.” The barkeep huffed. Caleb began to backtrack.

“Oh no, I’m fluent in Zemnian. I’ve read all of his works.”

“Have you?”

“Mutual fan.” Caleb shrugged, grinning.

“I didn’t realize there was another Samuel fan in here. Which is your favorite?”

“I love the _Farthing’s Embrace_.”

“I haven’t read that one.”

“It’s an early one. He actually did it under a pseudonym. He did a whole series under that pseudonym, short stories.”

The barkeep’s eyes widened.

“What is it again?” He went over and grabbed a piece of chalk in the back and started, “It was–?”

“ _Farthing’s Embrace_.”

“Mein Gott, I did not know about this. I may have to send out Zadash and see if we can find some of those books. Thank you.”

“You’re a big reader or just Samuel?” Caleb asked.

“Just recently Samuel. I read on occasion. It depends on what you can find.”

“I read a lot, but all I’ve been able to find in this town is that parchment place.”

“The parchment place is good for trash.” The barkeep leaned forward, as if imparting a secret, “If you’re looking for unique stuff, there’s a few places you can go.”

“Here in town?” Caleb asked, hopefully. I leaned forward too, now interested.

“Here in town, yeah. If you’re having a hard time finding a specific book, I would recommend going to Burnished Bibelots.”

“Burnished Bibelots. Which ward is that in?”

“That is in the North Ward, just on the outskirts of the main market street. It’s a bit of a cluttered mess, but Oglen would be happy to help you.”

I saw Caleb mouth out the name ‘Oglen’, committing it to memory.

“That is good to know. Thank you.”

“Not to worry.” The barkeep leaned back.

“Those are hard to find, the Farthing’s Embrace.” Caleb warned.

“I imagine so. It can’t be that bad.”

“He wasn’t as proud of them,” Caleb explained, “Early work and all that.”

“Of course. I have a contact in Rexxentrum. If I cannot find it in Zadash, I will get it from Rexxentrum.”

“That would be the place.” Caleb nodded. The barkeep’s eyes narrowed.

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Caleb.”

“Caleb. Pleasure to meet you. I am Vosna.” The barkeep held out his hand, and the two shook hands.

“Thank you for the drink, Vosna. I’ll be taking my leave now.” Fjord said, interrupting.

“Of course. If anybody else is a reader as well, come by and talk sometime.”

“I may take you up on that! I can’t read Zemnian so I’m not familiar with Samuel’s works, but I read quite a lot of fiction.” I said, kindly.

“Please visit again! Chats like this make the workday go by so much faster.” The man sighed.

The group of us turned in time to see Mollmauk down his entire whiskey and set the glass down on the bar.

“I love small towns.” He said.

I looked back at the old man playing solitaire, wondering what had happened.

“What he say?”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before.” Mollymauk shrugged. I felt rage shoot through me as I realized the kind of comments he must have made.

“You guys go ahead. Jester, can I talk to you for a second? Privately, here?” I requested. The others looked confused, but did as I asked. Once the group had stepped outside, Jester turned to me.

“What’s wrong, are you okay?” She asked, looking concerned. I leaned in so we could talk quietly between us.

“Yeah, I’m alright. Just was thinking…want to teach that guy a lesson?”

“Revenge? On that old dude?” I nodded. “Okay! I heard what he said to Molly, and he was being a huge dick. But what are we going to do?”

“I need you to distract him, pretend you lost your earring.”

She blinked.

“Okay!” She immediately perked up. I hugged her, as if we’d finished a deep discussion. When we parted, her hand went up to her hair and she gasped.

“Oh my gosh! My earring!!” She clutched her ear, looking around frantically. She immediately began scanning the floor and walking around wildly. It must have been convincing because I saw the barkeep begin checking around the counter-top.

“Excuse me, I’m just looking for my earring! Have you seen it?” Jester said, almost covering the table as she interrupted the old man’s game. As the man yelled at Jester I slipped behind him and slipped a hand in his pocket, taking his wallet. I hid it inside my robe and then gasped loudly. I bent down and picked up a speck of nothing.

“Found it!” I said, beaming, holding my hand in a fist.

“Oh good! Let’s go!” Jester said, flouncing off. For the first time since I’d met her, my step almost matched her’s for energy.

“What did you do in there?” Jester asked, curiously.

“Took his wallet.” I said, removing the cash and dropping the empty wallet on the path. “You want half?”

“You stole his money!?—yes please.” Jester said, holding out her hand. I gave her half. She looked down at the coin, surprised. “Wow. You did much better at this than Nott did.”

I snorted.

“I’m sure Nott was just having an off-day, it happens. Pick-pocketing is hard.” I said.

“…They seem to be the one connecting through-line. Also, what’s her name, Norda? Mentioned that she didn’t want to let you lot in, but made an exception. I don’t know, if I wanted to do something, and if I already knew a bunch of people were upset and angry at a circus and strange people coming in, it’s easy framing, in my opinion.” At the end of Beau’s theory, we were returned to the group.

“She makes a valid point, actually.” Fjord said, then turned to Jester and I, “Welcome back. You two alright!”

“Yes we are!” Jester said, grinning and looking a little too happy. Fjord eyed us suspiciously.

“Beau’s theory makes sense.” I said, turning us back on topic, “If people are scared of carnivals, they won’t want them in the future, and she wouldn’t have to let them come back.”

“That, or if you’re up to no good and you don’t want to get caught, blame it on the easy frame. The weirdos who just rolled into town.” Beau said.

“Great, so we just need to investigate the guards.” Jester said.

“That might be harder to do. Maybe we go down further Lochward.” Fjord suggested.

“Start at the docks, but I’ll keep that in mind.” Mollymauk nodded.

“I don’t know, it might not be the guards. There might be another through-line that we’re missing.” Beau said, back-tracking a little.

“Do we need to question the guards?” Jester asked, confused.

“That sounds terrible.” Nott said.

“I agree. I almost got caught already earlier, I don’t know if we could fully investigate them without being caught.”  

“Maybe we should tell them _they_ can’t leave town.” Jester huffed.

“Ooh, that’s a good idea, yeah!” Beau lit up, “Maybe when they question us–“

“We turn it around!”

“Yeah!” Beau and Jester cheered, high-fiving.

“I like that.” Beau said.

“I was about– nope, nevermind.” Molly stopped himself.

“What?”

“I was about to be very impressed, but I take it back.”

“Aw.”

“I’d like to avoid the guards for as long as possible.”

“Agreed.” Beau and I said simultaneously.

“Let’s head down to the docks. Keeping an eye out for crownsguard.” Fjord decided. The group of us nodded and started walking towards the edge of the Ustaloch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow what happens when your disguise is a Nat 20 but your performance check is a 2: The Guards think you're weird af. Thank God I went with Jester and not Mollymauk, or else we'd be a duo of +0 Charisma.
> 
>  
> 
> I will likely be unable to post any time in May. My class is more writing intensive than I realized and is aggravating my carpal tunnel. See you guys in June!!!


	7. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, the party's investigation into the tragic events of the carnival begin to lead them to the docks...

After weaving through the streets of Trostenwald, we made our way towards the Loch. On arrival, we could see six docks of varying length stretching into the Loch. No ships were in sight, though there was a litter of boats and rowboats tied up haphazardly. At a glance I was able to see that little had changed since our last visit to the dock; all the boats clearly belonged to fishermen.

Looking out, there were even more fishermen out on the loch itself. Further out from any of the fishermen was a small island in the middle of the Loch. I assumed nobody was fishing near it because the smaller fish congregated within the rocks lining its coast.

As we walked by, workers on the dock only gave us a fleeting, judgmental glance. They were older, tan—their skin worn from their work in the sun.

“No Crownsguard,” Jester murmured, looking around. She perked up. “Looks like we’re ahead of them in the investigation.”

“Hey, Jester.” Beau began, “Do you happen to remember the name of that guy whose daughter we saved from the snake?”

“Oh shit.” Jester swore. I silently agreed, unable to remember it myself. “Let’s see if I wrote it down in my sketchbook.”

“Yeah, because I didn’t write it down.” Beau said, apologetically. Jester flipped through her journal, the pages a blur of sketches and colors.

“King Bertrand?” She suggested. Fjord shook his head.

“No.”

“Okay. What about– no, I know that guy.” Jester shut her book, “Nope, I didn’t.”

“Damn it.” Beau made a face, mulling over ideas. “We could go by. He seems to like us.”

“He worked out there, right?” Jester pointed to the Loch. Fjord, Beau, and I nodded.

Our group of four Serpent Slayers led the way down the edge of the Loch to the fisherman’s house. As we neared we could hear the sounds of tools hammering away at the damaged structure. The door was off its hinges, and there was a large pile of ruined furniture on the front lawn. The familiar body of the snake was half in view, being skinned by a young boy. It was a slow process with the length of the snake. I looked over to Molly, recalling how he hadn’t fully believed our serpent story, and grinned. He was busy eyeing a snake tattoo on his hand in comparison—moving it forward and backwards to try and line up its head with the serpent’s.

“That’s the snake I punched.” Beau jutted her chin out.

“That’s your work? That’s impressive. You took it all by yourself?” Caleb asked. Beau’s smile fell.

“Well, no. They helped me. I’m not an egomaniac. They fucking helped me.”

“But I saw your guns last night. You probably took the lead.” Caleb said. Beau sneered.

“Give credit to the whole damn group, move on.” Beau said, throwing out her arm to the door. Fjord pat Caleb on the back.

“Flattery got you nowhere.” He consoled. Caleb sighed, looking down to Nott.

“We have been in the woods for too long. I’ve forgotten how to talk to people.”

Nott nodded.

“Your game is really suffering.” She agreed. It seemed to click for Beau only now that Caleb had been trying to flirt with her.

“Thanks for the damn compliment.” She said, in the same bitter tone.

The squabble caught the young man’s attention who had been working on the snake, looking up with knife in hand to stare at our crowd. Before either of us could speak, a voice yelled down.

“Hey!”

Up on the roof was the familiar fisherman that we had helped the other day.

“Rinaldo!” I exclaimed.

“What--did you _know?”_ Beau turned to me. I shook my head.

“Only remembered his name now.” I muttered quietly. Seeing his face and hearing him talk again had jogged the memory. 

Rinaldo paused in his repair of the roof, and made his way over to a ladder on the side of the house. In a moment, he stood in front of us.

“How can I help you?”

“It’s us!” Jester said, pointing to her human-looking illusion.

_We were all still disguised._

“Yeah, it’s me.” Beau said, pulling off her hat and pulling her hair up. “We killed your snake?”

“Pretend I don’t talk—” Jester coughed, switching out of her accent, “Pretend that I don’t talk like this.”

Fjord rolled his eyes and dropped his spell. Rinaldo reared back.

“AH!” He put a hand on his heart, trying to calm himself.

“I’m sorry to deceive you.” Fjord apologized. Rinaldo looked at the group of us.

“I’m very confused.”

“Rinaldo, this snake that was in your house is not the only strange occurrence that’s been happening. We’re trying to find out the cause of it. Have you seen anything else like this in the time that’s passed?” Fjord asked. 

“No, we’ve been doing repairs on the house and getting everything underway. This is the first thing that’s come on this side. Most of them live toward the center of the lake and stay underwater. It’s been two in the last few months that have come up. It’s a bit of a nuisance.”

“Have you seen any zombies coming out of the lake?” Jester asked. Rinaldo stared at her, even further confused.

“Zombies? What are you talking about?”

“We’re asking after a man that helped down at the docks, named Enon.” Fjord explained, “Have you heard of him?”

“Enon?” Rinaldo repeated. Fjord nodded. “Yeah, I worked with him a couple times. He comes through, looking for work, asking to see what’s available.”

“You obviously have not heard the news from the traveling circus in town. From last night?” Caleb prompted. Rinaldo shook his head.

“No. That’s the big blue tent, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“No, what’s going on?”

Jester leaned in closer and whispered. She was so quiet it was unintelligible.

“What?” Nott asked.

“Enon turned into a zombie!” Jester shouted, and then immediately quieted, “And was killed.”

“What?” I glanced down at Nott. _Was she hard of hearing?_

Rinaldo deflated at the news. 

“I’m sorry to hear that. That’s terrible. Wow, that’s really terrible. I’m sorry.”

“We were trying to see if he might have worked with people that might have known what he was doing that day, earlier.” Fjord explained.

“I haven’t seen him at the docks in a while. Not for a week, at least.”

“Really?” Fjord and Jester asked at the same time.

“Is there anything out of the ordinary from the past week or two that comes to mind? Anything off about the run-of-the-mill stuff?” Caleb asked.

“Other than a giant fucking snake ruining my house, but not that comes to mind, no. Circus coming into town, that’s a little weird.”

“I see you’re skinning the beast. Can I ask why?” Fjord gestured to the serpent. Rinaldo shrugged.

“I’m not going to let it go to waste. That’s some good meat. Some good skin.”

“You mentioned the circus coming to town as weird. Why?” Beau asked. He shrugged again.

“Because there’s a circus in town. We don’t get many shows and traveling folk. Last time this was here, a year ago, it came and went in a week.”

“You said you hadn’t seen this person in a week? Was that unusual?” Nott questioned.

“No. I didn’t keep up with him. He came through every now and then...I had a little cash and needed some help hauling things around. I asked for his assistance. He was an old fella, and it was less that he was helpful and more that we wanted to help when we could.”

“If we went down to the docks where he worked,” Fjord began, “is there anyone that we should ask for, to speak to, who might have known him better?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. To be fair, although we’re a community, we’re also relatively competitive. You understand.”

“I do.”

“You think anyone would have wanted him marked or harmed in some way?” Mollymauk asked. Rinaldo shook his head.

“I don’t think so. He’s an old man. I haven’t seen or heard anyone– his disposition seemed positive enough, if a little sad and lonely.”

Fjord nodded.

“If you think of anything, or if you hear anyone speak about him, you can find us at the Nestled Nook Inn. We’d appreciate anything, if it happens to reach your ears.”

“Of course. Let me finish up here with the roof and I’ll ask around, see if anything comes up.”

“Much obliged.”

“How’s your little girl doing?” Beau asked, re-affixing her disguise.

“It just wasn’t expected.” Rinaldo sighed.

“Sorry.”

“No, she’s doing great. She’s been a little spooked, but she slept well last night. She’s doing fine. Thank you again for what you guys did for me.”

“You’re welcome.” Jester and I spoke together.

“What? For what?” Nott asked, confused.

“We saved a little girl!” Jester reminded. Nott’s eyes widened, recalling the story.

“Oh yes, that’s right.”

Jester turned back to Rinaldo.

“If you see any zombies, please let us know."

“I will. You were so kind to help me when I saw a snake, I figure if I see a zombie, you’d also be helpful.”

“We would, definitely. We already killed a zombie too!”

I glanced over at the group, still seeing Molly eye the snake.

“We have some of its fangs.” I said, carefully pulling it out. I had placed mine in a small glass jar. Molly held out a hand, and I let him examine it. “I kept it for alchemy reasons. Poison studies. But we all kept one as a trophy.”

“Yes! I have one!” Jester said, cheerfully holding hers up.

“Me too.” Beau said, nodding.

Mollymauk handed the jar back to me. He held out his right hand again, holding it up to the snake so I could see.

“Looks like mine.”

“Only bigger.” Jester said.

“Much bigger.”

“Now we just have to run into a peacock and…” I looked to his left hand, which he held up at my questioning gaze, “…a field of flowers.”

“Sounds much more pleasant.” Molly chuckled.

“Shall we?” Fjord called over to us, gesturing back to the docks. Rinaldo had already clambered back onto the roof to return to his repairs. 

“Fuck. Sure.” Jester said. Molly and I followed, Nott catching up to Jester.

“We are the best detectives ever!” She said. Jester sighed.

“I feel like we are really doing bad at this detective thing.” She disagreed. 

“We should probably wrap up whatever we’re doing. I imagine they’re going to come by the inn soon and try and speak with us.” Fjord said. He pointed at Caleb and Nott, “Not you two.”

“Is there anywhere else that we need to inspect? The carnival or more docks stuff?” Nott asked.

“I feel like going back to the carnival is probably a bad idea.” Jester said.

“Returning to the scene of the crime? _Probably_.” I snorted.

“I’d say the docks are his home, if we could figure out where he lived.” Molly said.

“Where he was last seen?” Nott suggested. Molly raised a brow.

“He was last seen at the circus!” Molly said. 

“You were there.” I reminded. Nott’s eyes widened.

“Oh! Right!”

 _“Rinaldo!”_ Jester called back.

“Yeah!?”

“Do you know where Enon lives!?”

“I can’t say I do! I’m sorry! My apologies! Wish I could be of more help!”

“It’s okay!”

“You don’t happen to know what happened to his son, by any chance!?” Molly joined the shouting.

“I didn’t even know he had a son!”

Inexplicably, this cheered up Jester. She looked to Nott, smiling.

“See? We’re better investigators than this guy.”

“But he’s not trying to investigate!” Nott argued. Molly shrugged.

“I take the compliment. I’m putting it my pocket.” He mimed doing so, “I’m keeping it for later.”

“I’m starting to think that following Enon’s story isn’t necessarily going to lead us here.” Beau said, “He seems like a random victim.”

“Hey, 14 year old kid!” Jester shouted. Being much nearer to us than Rinaldo now was—back on the roof—the kid jumped at Jester’s shout.

“Yeah?”

“Do you live here?” She asked.

“No, I live about three houses up.” The kid explained.

“Did you go to the carnival?”

“Last night? Yeah, I was there.” He nodded.

“Okay, where were you at the carnival?”

“…I actually snuck in under the tent after it had started.”

I snickered and looked at Molly. He pushed me lightly on the arm, barely making me stumble.

“Right, that’s a good thing. Were you close to Enon? In the show. Were you on that side or the other side? Did you see the zombie?”

“I saw him a little bit. He was in the front and I had people in front of me, but I think I saw some of it.” He paused. “…It was _pretty cool_.”

“It was kind of crazy, right!?” Jester geeked out too. “Have you heard any ghost stories around town lately? About scary things happening?”

“My grandma told me a ghost story years ago about these giant badger creatures that live on the hills of the Ashkeeper that can stand up on their hind legs, and they come down and they eat kids that don’t go to bed in time.”

“Oh shit. Those guys are scary, I’ve heard of them. You should be really careful. Have you heard anything about _zombies?_ ” This time Jester specified.

“No, not since that.”

“Hey, listen, if you hear any other ghost stories, you come and find us, okay?” Jester said. The kid nodded rapidly.

“Okay.”

“All right.”

The group of us set off, some of us chuckling over the kid’s rambling as we got out of hearing range.

“Are we just going from person to person in town telling them to come find us?” Beau asked, amused.

“We are _really_ terrible at this!” Nott laughed.

“Well, she’s making friends with everybody.” Molly defended Jester, “I don’t see any of you making friends.”

“Wow, are we not friends? My heart is broken beyond repair.” I deadpanned, smiling all the while.

“WE are friends!” Jester said, jumping over and hugging me from the side. I tensed up at first, surprised.

“Thanks, Jester.” I chuckled, patting her back. 

“I’m a little concerned that we’ve been gone for a while.” Fjord interrupted.

“Yeah, maybe we should get back.” Beau agreed.

“Maybe let these two, that aren’t under house arrest–“

“Continue the investigation?” Nott said. “Or go back?”

“No, continue. I mean, if you’re up for it.” Fjord said. Nott nodded. 

“Yeah, yeah, We’ll be a regular–“

“Yeah, we’ve done nothing wrong.” Caleb interrupted, looking shaky, “We’re not sweating it. I’m not sweating-...”

“...Yeah, I believe you completely. That was very believable. I’m going to give you another blessing before you leave, okay?”

I laughed quietly at Jester’s shade at Caleb, while he began to look more frustrated than nervous.

“What are you talking about? None of us did anything. None of us! We protected the people of this town!” He argued.

“It’s true.” Jester agreed.

“It is true.”

“I know.”

“That’s easy. Let’s go solve a mystery, Nott.” Caleb’s mood turned around.

“All right.” Nott said. Molly looked between them, confused.

“Were you being sarcastic– oh, no you weren’t, okay. Catching up on that.”

“So,” Beau interrupted, bringing us back on track, “kids don’t know anything about this, old people don’t know anything about this–“

“Tavern-keeper doesn’t know anything about this.” Fjord added.

“Only the pure of heart make their answer out of riddles.” Mollymauk quoted. He shook his head, “Back to the tavern.”

The quote confused me, although it sounded pretty, so I ignored it.

“Well that leaves the fishermen and the guards.” I said. 

Beau pointed at me excitedly.

“But pure of heart! Still going back to the guards thing! Back to the tavern, let’s go.”

 _Oh I am_ not _pure of heart._

“We’ll see you back at the inn.” Fjord said, the group of us saying goodbye to Caleb and Nott, and beginning the trek back.

“Should we run back, or should we saunter back?” Beau asked, “Maybe super stealthily back?”

“At least Fjord and Jester.” I said. Fjord had dropped his spell, and Jester’s had worn off. Jester nodded in agreement.

“All right.” She put her cloak’s hood up.

“I can maybe put a rope through the window?” Molly suggested.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” Beau agreed.

It went off surprisingly well. Molly was able to get inside without a problem, and after a minute or so, a rope fell out the window of his and Fjord’s room. With the group of us on watch, we were able to quickly climb up when no one was looking.

“Thanks.” I said, taking Molly’s hand as he helped pull us through the window.

“Not at all.” He waved it off. When we all were safely in, and the rope retrieved, I felt the drain of the day catch up to me. We made our way back to our room, bidding Molly and Fjord farewell as we went back to our rooms.

I immediately began setting out my alchemy supplies.

“What ya up to?” Beau asked. I glanced up from setting my beaker on its frame.

“I’m gonna set a healing potion to brew.” I said, “Since we’re stuck here for a while, might as well be productive.”

“I’m going to draw!” Jester cheered, her way of agreeing.

“How’d you get into…potioneering?” Beau asked.

“A lot of books about it when I was a kid.” I said, vaguely. I started grinding up the ingredient, idly wondering when I would get the chance to find or purchase more. The shop in town had been surprisingly limited on ingredients, rather than the potions themselves.

“So, what, your family are alchemists?”

“My mother.” I answered shortly. 

“Oh, cool, cool.”

I could feel Beau’s eyes on me as I began the brewing process. It was second nature to me, making a common healing potion. For a long while as I worked, the room was quiet except for Jester’s sketching and occasional giggles.

“Do you have a family business to go back to, then?”

I contained a sigh at Beau’s questions. I supposed I should have seen it coming; everyone had gotten an interrogation last night around the table, and all I had given for information about myself was that I was an Alchemist from Port Zoon.

“Not really a family business, but I do have a couple of job prospects back in Zoon.”

“Like what?”

“…like _Alchemist?_ ”

“No no I get that.” Beau backtracked, “But you said a couple job prospects. Like what?”

“Alchemist for different places is what I meant.”

Beau’s eyes narrowed.

“Hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, I’m just trying to make conversation. But we are in a weird situation, and I’ve only known you for a few days, so it would be nice to actually know something about you. Ya know?”

I looked at my potion, which was going well. Almost _too_ well—it didn’t give me an excuse to ignore her when it was at the point of practically brewing itself. I set it to simmer and looked up to Beau.

“It’s not personal. I just left Zoon, so I’m trying not to think about it.”

“Oh. Okay, I get that.” Beau sat back. “How long you thinking of traveling?”

“Well, I’m an Elf. So…I’ve got the time. Indefinitely.” I said, smiling lightly. A longer lifespan felt freeing.

“Right. Are there a lot of Elves in Zoon?” She asked.

“There’s a lot of everybody. Kind of like everywhere on the Menagerie Coast, everybody ends up together.”

“Huh. Is it—”

A knock at the door cut off Beau’s questioning.

“Hello?” Jester called.

“Please open, it’s Crownsguard.”

“Hold on, I’m naked!” Jester called. Beau and I looked over to fully-dressed Jester, confused. She began to whisper, “Yeah, I don’t know. Do you want to put clothes on? Should we take our clothes _off?_ ”

“Did you say that because you wanted to tell us something?” Beau asked.

“No, I just wanted to make them wait.” She cleared her throat and called through the door again, “Okay, I’m dressed now!”

“I like that. We’re giving them–authority. Got the upper hand. Okay.”

“It’s a power play.”

“Do we invite them in or are we going to–? You open the door.” Beau sat at the foot of the bed, looking at her nails. I moved my potion to the other side of the bed so it was not immediately visible. 

"Ready." I said to Jester. 

“Come in, please.” Jester called.

The door slowly opened, and we could see two Crownsguards standing in the doorway at attention.

“Oh hello, I wasn’t expecting you.” Jester said. Beau looked up to them.

“Oh, yeah, hi.”

“We’re here to notify you that the investigation is ongoing. You will not be needed today. Please remain in your premises. Be back tomorrow.” One of the guards ordered.

“Can I ask you a question before you leave?” Jester asked, politely.

“Yes, what is your question?”

“Are you guys going to be the same people coming back tomorrow?”

The guard paused.

“Possibly.”

“What is your names?”

The two guards looked at each other in silent question before turning back to our group.

“I am Jonas.” The first guard said. The second guard, the younger of the two, introduced himself next.

“I am Lucas.”

“Jonas and Lucas, very good names.” Jester said. Beau smirked.

“You guys should start a band. Like a boy band or something.”

“Yeah, that’d be good. Girls would go crazy. If you guys want to play some games tomorrow, we’ll just be here!” Jester offered.

“Very well. Have a good day.” Jonas said. Before the door shut, I caught the two of them exchange a glance, clearly thrown by Jester and Beau’s commentary. Once the door was shut, Jester turned to us two, nervously.

“I shouldn’t have offered the game. What if we want to leave and then they want to take us up on the game thing?” She asked.

“I thought you enjoyed games.” Beau raised a brow.

“No, I love games!”

“Sure.”

“But what if we leave and then they want to play games?” Jester asked.

“Something tells me that’s not going to be a problem.” I said, putting a hand on Jester's shoulder.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Okay.”

There was another knock at the door, not a moment later.

“Oh for the love of—” Beau went over to the door this time, annoyed. Instead of the guards we were expecting, Mollymauk stood in the doorway.

“Visited by the guards already?” He asked, taking in Beau’s irritated expression.

“Yeah. You guys too, then? Not called for _jury duty?_ ” Beau scoffed.

“Nope. May I?” He gestured into the room. Beau stepped aside and Molly breezed past, his deck of cards in hand.

I slid my potion equipment back out from around the corner, claiming my space again before Mollymauk could swipe it for his tarot spreads. His eyes landed on my kit, and he perked up.

“Now, what do you have here?”

“Healing potion brewing.” The potion was still fairly separated, the base of water only just tinted pink. In the end stages, the healing potion would be as bright red as Molly’s eyes.

“Not another fire bomb? And that was so impressive.” There was a touch of sarcasm in his voice. I took it to be in reference to me technically sneaking a weapon into the tent after the whole weapon-check debacle. 

“I don’t need to brew those. I can just conjure them when I need them.” I explained as Molly took a seat at my side. “What brings you to the girls’ room?”

“Fjord need some alone time?” Beau snickered. Molly ignored her and continued looking at me.

“Well, you invited me here last night. Figured it was an open invitation?”

If I had been eating something I would have choked. Instead, I had my mouth agape, equal parts amused and surprised that he would bring that up again.

“Oh _did you?”_ I asked, my amusement taking away from my warning tone.  

“Don’t get yourself all in a tiff, love, I’m joking.” Molly waved it off. “Fjord kicked me out, asked me to ‘bring my game to the other room’.” He held up his deck of cards, and began to shuffle.

“You can get to repaying us for helping you get out of jail by giving Jester more fortunes, if you’d like.” I pointed back to Jester, ignoring Molly to fiddle with my potion—though I knew there was little I could do to improve it.

“Oooo! Yes please!” Jester said, looking up from her sketches.

“I believe I made it clear I don’t owe you anything for that assistance, though I’m happy to give further readings for coin.” He said, evenly. I grinned.

“Don’t get yourself all in a tiff, love, I’m joking.”

At this, he outright laughed.

“It’s always the quiet ones.” He winked at me.

“I’m not quiet!” I argued, not sure why I was at all bothered by the statement. His eyebrows raised. “What?”

“Asking me to bed and telling me you're a loud one? You're quite forward, aren't you.”

I stared at him blankly, taking a second to figure out what he meant.

“…Shut up!”

He laughed again.

“Speaking of quiet ones, any word from your friend? Yasha?” I asked, desperate for a change of topic. I felt like I had lost at whatever verbal sparring we’d just engaged in.

In the corner of my eye I saw Beau perk up at Yasha’s name.

“No. I left a note at the bar, in case of her return, but she hadn’t come to pick it up yet.” Molly hummed. “But no need to worry. Yasha can take care of herself.”

“Of that I have no doubt.”

I thought back to the strong woman and her wicked blade. Carrying all of our assorted weapons and Beau on her person—carving into the zombified monsters raging through the tent…she’d be fine.

For the next couple of hours, the four of us made small talk over our own tasks. Beau rode out her time watching Jester sketch away in her book. Occasionally Jester would bounce over to see Mollymauk’s cards, as he gave himself what I assumed were practice readings. I was overseeing my potion, or at least pretending to. I was almost certain Molly could tell I was just finicking with my ingredients to keep myself from watching his cards, but he said nothing of it. His presence seemed to annoy Beau just enough to the point where she didn’t restart her interrogation from earlier, which I was grateful for.

I got where she was coming from; we’re all strangers, essentially, so it’s comforting to know that we’re trustworthy people—at least amongst ourselves, for now. But it went both ways: We’re all strangers…so why would I trust you with personal details?

Another knock on the door and we saw Fjord in our entryway, letting us know that Caleb and Nott had returned. The group of us went to convene downstairs.

The tavern was more alive than last night, the bustle of it all letting our conversations go unnoticed.

“Well.” Nott began, “That was terrible. No one found out anything. It was a waste of a day. We’re all terrible at this. Goodnight?”

“What time is it?” Jester questioned. I looked out an open window, trying to judge.

“Like, maybe 8?”

“That’s not true!” Beau pointed to Nott, “I still say that some of the best information that you can get can be in the information that you don’t find.”

“That is nonsense.” Nott argued. I shook my head.

“No, I get what she’s saying. Lack of evidence is a kind of evidence.” I said, unsure if that made any more sense to the goblin than Beau’s original statement. But Beau nodded, looking proud.

“Sometimes the lack of information can be a process of elimination.” Beau said.

“Sure.” Fjord shrugged.

“It’s super broad!”

“No, you know what?” Molly began, “I’m going to take it.” Beau huffed.

“I’m trying to be fucking silver lining, so I don’t feel like a piece of shit for waste a day, and you guys are shitting on that, but it’s fine.” She crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. Fjord turned back to Caleb and Nott.

“You found nothing at the docks? Zip, zero?”

Caleb shrugged, looking at a loss.

“We spent hours there, no one knew anything about the old man.”

“See?” Beau leaned back towards us, “No one knew anything about him. That means, prime candidate, someone’s little experiment. Little Frankenstein. I’m telling you.”

“…I don’t really understand what she’s saying.” Caleb admitted.

“I don’t either.” Jester agreed. She abruptly stood and ran over to the staircase. She ran up, and I wondered if she was going to get something from our room before she ran back down.

And back up.

And back down.

And back up.

“How long have you known this one?” Molly asked.

“About 24 hours longer than you have.” Beau answered.

“That explains a lot.”

It didn’t take long for the barmaid, Adelaine, to go up to her.

“I’m sorry, can you please stop?”

Jester looked at her.

“Okay!”

She bounded back to us as Adelaine said “Thank you” in a very customer-service voice.

Yeah, we weren’t being easy guests to this place.

“I saw some weirdos running around.” Nott suddenly blurt out.

“…Nott, Jester is right here.”

Jester pushed me in the arm, making me sway in my seat, quite similar to how Molly had earlier.

“No! The other night, when he was asleep.” Nott explained, pointing to Caleb.

“How late?” Fjord asked. Nott thought about it.

“Two in the morning?” She guessed.

“You were out _that late?”_ Nott shrunk a little under Caleb’s stare.

“Sorry.”

“Maybe we should go out at two o'clock in the morning and see if we can find them!” Jester suggested.

“Ooh, that’s a good idea.” Beau agreed.

“Follow them.”

“You guys notice that it’s weird that no one’s actually really talking about this? This is a small town. I come from a small town. Small town people gossip.”

“I feel like there should be some more gossip than there is, that’s very true.” Molly agreed.

“Someone is talking about this, we just haven’t found them yet. 2:00AM field trip!” Beau cheered, quietly.

“We can always leave through the window this time.” Jester said.

“Mm-hmm, I like that.”

“I can be down for that.” Fjord agreed.

“I leave the rope tied in here. Can we use your cat?” Molly asked Caleb, “Reel it back up in so that there’s no trace of us until we need to get back there.”

Caleb looked at him, brow furrowed.

“…Are you asking for my cat to haul up our rope?”

“No, I’m _telling_ you that your cat is going to haul up a rope.”

I snorted.

“How is a cat going to lift up a rope?” Jester questioned.

“It’s not that heavy of a rope, it’s just hemp.” Molly shrugged, “And if I throw it back up there then I imagine your cat can knock it back down at the very least.”

“There, that would work, maybe.” Jester agreed.

“Oh, is he like an asshole cat?” Beau asked, looking around for Frumpkin.

“I assume he’s an asshole cat. Aren’t all cats asshole cats?” Molly asked.

“Or we could have Caleb take the rope from your guys’ room, and then he can walk out the front door, like he’s allowed to do, and give you your rope back when we meet up again.”

Silence met my too-logical plan from the cat-plan people.

“That makes more sense to me.” Caleb admitted, breaking the silence.

“It’s always the loud ones.” Molly murmured. I leaned around Jester to hit him on the arm with such speed it felt almost automatic.

“ _Shut up_.”

He snickered.

“Where were you when you saw these cloaked figures?” Fjord asked, getting us back on track.

“I had gone out to do some window shopping.” Nott squeaked. Fjord’s eyebrows raised.

“At 2:00 AM?”

“Yes, I wasn’t very successful. I had walked by the general store–“

“Oh, we went there.” Jester reminisced.

“Yeah, we did.” Beau nodded.

“--I passed by a place called Natural Remedies, herbs and medicinal things--”

“Picked up ingredients there!” I said, happily.

 “--I went by a spot named Jackalwere, it’s a smithy.”

“Okay, but where did you see the cloaked guys?” Jester pressed.

“It was one block north of the Natural Remedies.” Nott decided. She perked up, “We could do a little stakeout!”

“We could.” Fjord said, thinking it over. “Should someone stay up? Well, I was thinking someone should keep a lookout on the roof of the inn in case someone comes for us while everyone else is out.”

“How would we let anybody know?” Jester questioned.

“I don’t know. Can you conjure those golden orbs up into the air as like a signal?” Fjord asked, turning to Caleb. Caleb sighed.

“It’s pretty limited. They don’t go that far.”

“Maybe we just risk it.” Fjord said.

“Yeah!” Nott cheered.

“Let’s risk it!” Jester joined in.

“It’s 2:00 AM, I’m sure everybody will be asleep. Let’s risk it.” Fjord said.

“I’m for risking it,” I began, “But we still need to be on top of our game. If we were going to sneak out, or if the guards thought we were going to sneak out, they’d expect us to do it at night. Like 2:00 AM kind of night.”

“On guard for guards, got it.” Jester nodded, sagely. I sighed, a hand playing with my bandana. I wished my healing potion would be ready. They typically took a day to brew, but with this brew going so well, it was looking to take twelve hours. It would be ready by morning.

“We should set something up in the rooms, so we can tell if anybody enters after we leave.” Beau mused. She stood up. “Come on!”

Beau, Jester, Fjord, and I quickly followed suit. I saw Molly trail along behind us, and assumed Caleb and Nott would join us in a second. It was becoming second-nature to keep track of the party of people I had gotten stuck with. It made me wonder where everyone would end up after this investigation was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Great to be back! Once again going to be posting every Friday, if there is an exception it will be posted in the Notes. I will be busy on the 21st, so that chapter may go up late or early that week, depending. 
> 
> I thought it might be fun to include in the End Notes any Nat 20s and Nat 1s rolled from here on out that differ from the show. 
> 
> Nat 20s  
> \- Serasai rolled a Nat 20 on her Healing Potion
> 
> Nat 1s  
> \- None


	8. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, the party has decided to continue their investigation by going on a 2 AM stakeout where Nott had previously seen some suspicious, late-night activity...

We got upstairs and poured into Fjord and Molly’s room. Beau started taking out her healing kit as we closed the door behind us. She looked to be affixing the bandages to the chair nearby, making some sort of system to know if someone came in while we were out.

“Oh for god’s sake.” Molly huffed, pulling out a ball of string from his bag. Beau looked at it, then at her bandages. 

“…Okay, yeah.”

“What are we going to do? Leave through the window?” Jester questioned. Beau nodded.

“Yeah.” 

“What are you trying to do?” Caleb questioned.

“I’m trying to make sure that if someone tries to come in our room we’ll know if they come in.” Beau explained.

“I can take care of that.” Caleb said. Molly perked up.

“Oh, well then, I’m taking my string back.”

He went to grab it but Beau pulled it out of his reach, staring down Caleb.

“What can you do?” She asked.

“I have some magic for that.”

“Yeah, he has a magical spell that alerts you when someone tries to break in your room.” Nott said, bouncing excitedly.

“That is correct.” Caleb smiled, “Yeah. I will take a moment to do that and it will let me know.”

“Best part is, it doesn’t alert him when I sneak in or out.” Nott said, proudly.

“That you know of.”

“Wait. _What?_ ”

“One mile of the warded area.” Caleb continued, ignoring Nott’s question.

“That’s better! Let’s do that.” Beau said, finally handing Mollymauk his string back.

“I just need ten minutes.” Caleb said, pulling out a spool of silver thread. “Where did you want this? Over the window?”

“Well, I was going to say in the door, but if there’s maybe a place in the hall?” Beau suggested.

“Well, I can do the entire room really, I can go doorknob to–The funny thing about this thread, there’s no end to it.”

Caleb looped the string loosely around the doorknob, pulling it around the room and tying it off. He took out one of his books from his holster and began tracing symbols onto the floor. After ten minutes of Caleb’s intricate designs, he stood up and put his book away.

“Done.” He declared.

“Nice.” Jester nodded. Nott smiled widely. 

“See? He’s really good!”

“Didn’t really look like much.” Fjord muttered.

“Yeah, either that or I’m really bullshitting you and nothing happened.” Caleb gave him a half-smirk. Jester grinned.

“Either way, I liked it. Let’s sneak out.”

“I’m going to do one last thing before we leave,” Molly said, “Which is just tussle the room a bit so it looks like it’s been robbed. Just in case they do come in.”

The group of us bar-Caleb began our descent down a rope. Once we all had reached the bottom, Caleb pulled the rope back up. I scanned the alleyway and sky.

The lanterns at intersections in the distance were lit, otherwise we only had a scrap of moonlight to travel by—which would be my preference for sneaking around, regardless. Patches of clouds littered the sky, but for now the crescent moon shone down. The town, once alive with people, was silent.

“Where are we headed?” I asked.

“Caleb’s going to meet us at the north end, by Natural Remedies.” Nott squeaked.

“I ought to be leading the way, I reckon.” Fjord said, nodding.

“Maybe not, if we want to go stealth instead of disguised.” I argued.

“Maybe me?” Nott asked.

“No, I—well, actually, yes.”

“Do I still have the blessing?” Nott asked, looking to Jester.

“No, but if we get to an empty space, I can cast it on all of us one by one?” Jester offered.

“Let’s head out for now, and when we meet up with Caleb we can have you work your Trickster’s Blessing.” Fjord decided, then turned to Nott, “Nott, lead the way.”

Following the goblin’s lead, the group of us began to dodge between alleyways. Occasionally a patrol of crownsguard would cross our paths, but waiting for them to pass us in the shadows did the trick well enough. It was second nature to me, reminding me of the late nights out in Zoon.

Nearing Natural Remedies, we spot a figure walking down the road in a long coat.

“Caleb.” I murmured, careful to make sure nobody else around could see us. Jester waved him over, and he was able to sneak over to us.

“Welcome back.” Fjord muttered as Caleb joined us in the shadows.

“Should we fan out a bit? Cover a couple corners, so we can still see each other?” Nott suggested. Fjord nodded.

“Good idea.”

“Yeah. I’m going to go with Fjord!” Jester said, moving close to his side.

“Let’s not spread out too far, though.” Beau warned. Nott was ignoring her in favor of looking from Jester to Fjord and back.

“Are you two like _an item?”_ She asked. Jester looked over to her.

“What?”

“You and Fjord, are you like a thing?”

“Why, are you interested in him?”

“No, ugh, _no!”_

“No?”

“You travel together."

“Well yeah, he’s a good friend. He watches out for me, I watch out for him, you know. We’re a good team. Like you and Caleb.”

“…Not at all like that, but yes, all right.”

Nott dropped the subject, and the group of us fanned out.

I found myself on my own a ways out from the door. Maybe it was my experience, or maybe it was my elvish ability to see in the dark, but I was highly aware of where everybody was and what was happening in the area.

The Crownsguard approached with torches in hand. Time wore on, the only movement the firelight of the occasional Crownsguard, or the clouds covering the moonlight.

After a couple hours of our stakeout, I see the forms of the others begin to congregate together again. I easily slipped over to where they were.

“--Oh, we should talk to the girl!” Jester said.

“Toya?” Nott asked.

“Yeah.”

“Let’s go wake her ass up!”

“Is she under arrest? We don’t know.” Beau pointed out.

“Maybe we have to go back to the circus.” Molly mused.

“Maybe it was Yasha?” Jester said. Molly ignored the suggestion.

“It’s early enough maybe we should just–“

“We have a few more hours and the cover of darkness.” Fjord said. Nott nodded, enthusiastically.

“Yeah, let’s go wake her ass up!”

“Maybe we should go back to the circus. Scene of the crime? That whole thing?”

“It’s going to be difficult, it’ll be guarded.” I warned. Molly sighed.

“I hate to admit it, but maybe– it’s not us.” He gestured to himself. _It wasn’t the circus_ , he had kept repeating it. I was sure he believed it, but how well did they all know each other? All it took was one.

“Who’s real stealthy?” Fjord asked.

“I’m all right.” Beau said. I raised my hand too.

“I’m pretty good.”

Fjord looked between us.

“Maybe we don’t all need to go. Maybe just a few, and the others will hang back.” He suggested.

“Hang back close by though, right?” Nott asked, “If something goes bad–“

While the others discussed how we should approach the circus, I saw Jester rifling through her bag. She pulled out a set of paints and crouched down. She began painting on the side of the building. I watched, amused, as she painted a brown blob onto the wall.

When a conclusion had been met, the group looked over to see me watching Jester scowl at her painting. Fjord stepped over to us, and tilted his head as he looked at it.

“Is it a worm? It’s a snake!” He corrected. Jester deflated.

“It’s poop, I should’ve–“

“That’s an oval.” Caleb said.

“Poop can be ovals.” I argued, trying to defend Jester.

“I should have drawn a pile of poop.” Jester said, and began drawing more of the ovals next to it. Or, attempting.

“…That’s a triangle.” Caleb said. Fjord nodded.

“Yeah, I thought it was like chocolate frozen yogurt.”

“It’s math or something?” Molly guessed.

“It’s dark okay!?” Jester snapped, “I can usually paint much better than this. It’s really dark and my hands feel a little numb.” Nott patted Jester on the shoulder

“Let’s move then.”

//

It didn’t take long for the group of us to make our way through the outskirts of the town to the circus tents. It felt even more foreboding now than it had during the attack—the dark blue tent matched the night sky, so the moon illuminated the outline of the tent and nothing else.

Even a distance away we could see the torchlight of the Crownsguard.

While I felt confident that I was well hidden, when a guard was about 40 feet from us, he turned to the group sharply.

“Who goes there?”

All of us froze.

In a single beat, Fjord cast Disguise Self and turned himself into a Crownsguard. Caleb quickly followed suit. Jester moved a couple steps into the loch and ducked down, not at all hidden. The group was panicking. If Jester trying to hide in 6 inches of water wasn’t evidence, Nott tearing off her mask and jumping Caleb was.

“Get off, you little beast!”

 _“Shit!”_ The two real guards pulled their blades and started charging at Caleb and Nott. I took their distraction and was able to backtrack into an alleyway, hiding in the shadows once again.

I heard a big thud and Caleb yell “Down, you beast!”

A harder thud of something hitting wood.

“Where did this thing come from!?”

“I have it!” Caleb called, and I heard Nott let out a squeak in pain. “I have this. We’re taking these people across to jail.”

I heard Fjord speak next.

“Indeed, stay your blade, please, obviously he can handle this.”

“Don’t you fucking move you little green piece of filth.” Caleb hissed. A quick noise passed.

“Right in your face! Haha, incredible.”

Nott must have spit.

“This one is mine, thank you. Beat her within an inch of her life.”

“…All right…if you see anything else, give a shout.”

A louder spitting noise this time, followed by a disgusted groan from Nott. The real Crownsguard must’ve spit back…or Caleb got petty revenge.

Probably the guards.

“The rest of you lot fall in line!” Caleb commanded.

There was a long silence.

“…I really had to pee.”

I pressed my lips together at Jester’s excuse.

 “Hey! Not in the Ustaloch!”

The sound of water splashing was quickly followed by footfall. I hugged the wall of the alleyway and watched the orange torchlight from the guards move across the dirt path. I stayed still. Once they were out of view, I heard the others speaking.

“…Is that a natural thing for you guys to just attack each other in moments of stress?”

I peered around the alley entrance, looking after the guards first, then back to my group.

“Are you alright? I am so very sorry, I’m so sorry–“ Caleb was worriedly hovering over Nott, looking unsure of what to do, but deeply concerned. Nott had a trickle of blood falling from her nose.

“No, I’m fine that was good acting.” Nott said, waving him off, “You were perfect. I panicked, I didn’t know what to do. I was trying to create some sort of distraction.”

“Let me see your teeth. …Okay. You look all right.”

“They’re all over the place.”

“Oh, I can’t tell if that got worse or better.” Fjord said, eyeing Nott’s teeth.

“You fixed them a bit!” Beau decided. Fjord looked up and around.

“Where’s Serasai?”

“Here!” I held out a hand, and stepped out from my hiding spot. I walked over to the group of them.

“Did they not see you?” Caleb asked, confused.

“I’m not sure. I hid again when Nott attacked you. Figured it was a good distraction.”

“Aw, man, that’s what _we_ should’ve done.” Beau complained.

“I think they would have noticed if suddenly everyone was gone.” Molly pointed out, dryly.

“We set to go?” I asked.

“Yeah, okay.” Caleb nodded, “Who wants to go to the circus?”

“Yay.” Beau deadpanned.

Now able to get nearer to the circus, the group of us could see the front flap guarded by a half-asleep looking Crownsguard. Behind the tent, what I had once thought was simply moonlight seemed to be firelight as well; the camp for the circus performers.

“If you want to make your ways around, I could distract them for a moment, have a conversation with them.” Fjord murmured to the group. Beau looked over Fjord’s disguised form and nodded.

“Okay, yeah.”

“You you want to go with them?” Caleb asked Nott. He pointed to Fjord. “I’ll go with him.”

“Sure, but will you be watching me or no? You don’t have to.”

“Frumpkin will go with you.”

“All right. I’ll go with you and– who else is going? Are you stealthy?” Nott asked Jester.

“We’ll take care of you. Don’t worry! And Sera is stealthy!” Jester said.

I nodded.

“They’re not going to talk to you without me, so I’m coming, too.” Molly said, tightening his black cloak.

Jester, Beau, Nott, Molly, and I watched Caleb and Fjord wander off to the guard:

_“I’m a little jittery, do you want to be a front man for a little while?_

_“Sure I got it, yeah.”_

The boys walked off to the guard and their voices faded. We saw them strike up a conversation, and Molly pointed around the tent, directing us. We nodded and began following.

The group of us darted around the tent, but I accidentally leaned onto the tarp and saw the tent flap wave from the movement. We rushed ahead to avoid any trouble, and soon found ourselves in the circus’ encampment.

The bonfire in the middle was only embers now. Two Crownsguard were keeping watch—one nodding off, and the other doing basic patrol.

“Molly, I have a question.” Jester whispered, “What made you guys set up your tent here?”

“We were told to set it up here, if I recall.”

“In this specific area?”

“That sounds right. If I recall, we were specifically told to set up tent right here.”

“That’s pretty close to the lake.” Beau whispered, eyeing the Ustaloch.

“What if they set up their tent on a cursed land or something?” Jester suggested.

“I feel like that’d be common knowledge. Like a ghost story kids who live here knew.” I reasoned.

“And we already asked that one kid about ghost stories.” Beau pointed out.

Mollymauk moved towards the nearest tent, the rest of us following suit. Unexpectedly, he did a bird call.

No response.

Jester tried the same thing, with no results.

We dashed around to the next tent, Mollymauk making his bird call again. This time, there was a faint response. Molly gently lifted the back of the tent up and ducked in.

I looked around at the others, unsure whether we were meant to follow.

After a minute or so, the flap was lifted again. Mollymauk waved us in, and we crawled inside the tent.

The performer inside had to be Desmond, though he looked much different than he had during the performance. He was out of his colorful costumes and had a face clean of makeup. Now that he did, we could see that half his face was marred—shredded and healed over, long ago. The makeup had hidden it during the performance.

He was understandably upset, the whole tent awash in melancholy feelings.

“So you’re all the ones that helped earlier. Thank you. It would have been far worse if you hadn’t.”

“No problem.” Jester said immediately. Mollymauk leaned forward.

“What do they think happened? What are they asking?”

“They’re thinking something about the show. They’re thinking Gustav made this happen. I don’t think it’s Gustav, he’s a good man. He makes poor choices and it’s plagued him his whole life, you can see it in his brow. But good intentions have grave consequences. No one that good comes out of Shady Creek Run without some mistakes behind them,  
but I don’t see him doing this.”

“What would be the point?”

“Has it ever happened like this before?” Jester asked.

“No.”

“Anything weird ever happened before?”

Desmond gave a tired chuckle, with no real humor in it.

“Weird things? All the time. We’re a bunch of weird folk, work with a lot of weird people. Bunch of strange freaks gathered to this show.”

“Was there anyone new here recently that you haven’t worked with a lot?” Beau asked.

“Yeah, she apparently ran off.”

Molly turned to the group of us.

“Yasha’s the newest, but she can be flighty.” He explained.

“What about Mona and Yuli?” Beau suggested.

“The sisters are bitter, but it’s no fault of theirs.” Desmond said.

“Why are they bitter?”

“Because the world is cruel.”

“You’ve never met it– Well, nevermind.” Molly cut himself off. I looked over at him, confused.

“I wish I could help them, but it–”

“What happened to them? What did they say? Why do they think that? Why is the world shitty?”

“Have you been around? Have you travelled to see anything?”

“Yeah. Listen. The world has its own brand of shitty depending on whose eyes are looking at it, right? So what is their brand of shitty?”

“Circus shitty.” Molly said, gesturing around us.

“I don’t know. Ask them.” Desmond shrugged.

“Where are they?”

“In a tent over there.” Desmond pointed, “They don’t seem to take much of a liking to  
me anyway, so I can’t really tell you myself. I’m sorry.”

“They don’t like you? Why?” Nott asked.

“There’s a lot of people that don’t like me.”

“I like you, Desmond.” Jester said. “I think you’re great.”

“Why? What did you do?” Nott asked, wide-eyed. I let out a quiet sigh, knowing the answer. Desmond looked over at Nott, weighing his words.

“Same reason folks probably don’t like you; you’re different.”

“Looks mean nothing, people need to get off their high horse on that.” I muttered, bitterly.

“Easy for you to say.”

I looked back up to see Desmond looking me over. I smiled, though I could tell it didn’t reach my eyes.

“Not always.”

“Is everybody still here?” Molly interrupted, “They’ve not taken anyone away other than–“

“Other than those two, everyone else is here. We’re just keeping under watch until their investigation is complete.”

“Molly, why did you laugh when I asked about the sisters?” Beau asked, suddenly. They looked over to her with a blank expression.

“We’re carnival people, we’ve all got our issues. You don’t end up here if you’re not a little weird.”

“I just cast Detect Good and Evil. I don’t sense anything yet.” Jester interrupted. She was clutching the charm we’d seen her carrying earlier, which I now figured was her holy symbol. Nott looked interested.

“How far does it detect?” Nott asked.

“About 30 feet.” Jester said.

“Does it follow you?”

“Yeah, it follows me.”

“That’s pretty cool, let’s keep going then. Maybe we’ll see something?” Nott questioned.

“Won’t hurt.” I shrugged.

“Yeah, let’s leave.” Jester said, clutching her holy symbol. Before we did, Nott turned to Desmond.

“From one outcast to another, are there any questions that are bugging you about all this?” She asked.

“…I don’t want this all to fall on Gustav. He’s done a lot of good for all of us, and the way they’re talking about the investigation, they’re looking to make a scapegoat of this.”

“Well, thank you.”

“Thank _you_.”

Nott made a squawking sound; a poor attempt at the bird call from earlier.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.” Molly rolled their eyes and pulled Nott towards the back of the tent, “I’m going to do my best.” They called to Desmond.

“Thank you.”

The group of us snuck out the back of the tent. Following Molly, Jester close behind him and still clutching her symbol, we made our way to the next tent.

Just as we all made it behind the tent, we heard a guard.

“Huh?”

“Quick, go in the tent!” Jester hissed. From inside the tent we can hear the guard’s footsteps. The two Knot sisters gave a start at our sudden intrusion of their tent until Mollymauk put a finger to his lips and shushed them.

They both curled into a ball and stayed silent. Another figure in the tent, Ornna, began to stir as the footsteps faded.

“…That was close.” Jester whispered.

Ornna leaned forward from her cot, “Okay, _what_ is going on.”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out, what the fuck is going on.” Molly said quickly, “They’re with me, it’s been complicated. Gustav’s in deep. Bosun’s in deep.”

“Tell us you know something.” Jester practically begged.

“What do you want to know?” Ornna asked.

“What did you see? I don’t know.” Molly shrugged.

“Who did this? What was it?” Nott asked.

“I don’t know. I looked and I saw what you saw.”

Molly sat back, all anger and panic.

“For fuck’s sake, they’re going to kill every last fucking one of us unless we _figure this out_.”

“Right.”

“We’re not going to let that happen.” I said, hardly thinking as I said it. Mollymauk looked at me, sharply.

“And how do you propose we stop a whole town of guards if they decide they want our fucking heads?” 

I kept my mouth shut.

“…Thought not.” Molly finished. He turned back to Ornna. “If we don’t figure this shit out, we’re shit out of luck. What do you think?”

I stepped away from the conversation, looking around the room. The Knot Sisters were still folding themselves into a ball, silently watching the conversation. Beau was eyeing them suspiciously, while Nott and Jester were muttering to each other and edging towards a flap of the tent. I turned to the Knot Sisters.

“For what it’s worth, your act was my favorite.”

They said nothing, not that I expected them to. I turned and quickly followed after Jester and Nott. They were more likely to get caught on their own, and I wanted to be there if things went south.

The next tent was further than the others, leaving an open space we had to pass through undetected by the Crownsguard currently half-asleep by the fire-pit.

After sneaking around the other tents, I felt more back in my element.

Jester, unfortunately, did not.

A louder snore from the sleeping guard caused him to wake himself up, looking over in our direction and locking his eyes on Jester.

She immediately froze.

The guard stood up. Nott and I were tucked down together, cloaks hiding us in the darkness, both ready to pounce into a fight.

He moved towards Jester, hand on his blade—and stopped.

“Hi, I’m not here.” Jester said, plainly. He looked at her, expressionless.

“Okay.”

“Okay. Sit down. Go to sleep, this is a dream.”

His brow furrowed in confusion. 

“You _want_ it to be a dream.” Jester tried. 

The guard slowly went back to his seat and plopped down, still watching. He sat there motionless.

“...Okay, well it’s good enough, I guess.”

Jester came back towards the tent, Nott and I both tentatively standing and going over to her. She clutched her symbol. Her eyes went wide and her mouth made an ‘o’ as she looked at us, excitedly.

"I can sense something! Let’s go in the tent.”

“Go in? But if it’s bad, that’s bad!” Nott argued, nervously.

“What are you sensing?” I asked.

“Something fiendish. But what if it’s just a dead thing?”

“Oh god, will we have to fight a dead thing?” Nott asked, “Should we get some help?” Nott looked down to Frumpkin, sat by Nott’s foot. “I say go! Go get Caleb! Shoo!” Nott hissed, “Go away! * _Hiss!*_ I can’t speak Cat! Go away!”

Frumpkin meowed, lowly.

“Go away! Go tell Caleb we’re here!”

Frumpkin hissed.

I took a step back.

Frumpkin turned around, hissed again, and walked away.

“Okay, I’ve sent for help!”

“…’kay.” I said, not trusting myself to say more.

“Okay. Let’s go under the tent!” Jester said, carefully pulling up the flap. The three of us ducked in, hearing heavy snoring immediately.

The noise was coming from the Demon Toad from the circus show. I remembered him jumping up to save the little dwarf girl once the zombies had begun attacking.

His green, scaly, oily body expanded and contracted with each breath. Whatever the guy was, he was large and intimidating.

“That’s why you detected him, because he’s a fiend.” Nott whispered.

“The Demon Toad from the show.” I agreed. Jester shrugged, confused.

“Maybe he’s a good fiend? Can fiends be good?”

“He protected the girl, so maybe?” I shrugged.

“I don’t know, you detected–!” Nott waved her hands around, at a loss. “We can wake him up and ask?”

“That is a horrible plan, no.” I shut that down quickly. “Besides, even if he was good, he wouldn’t talk to us. We’re not carnies.” My eyes fell on a pale piece of material sticking out from the crook of the Toad’s arm. I held my hand out in warning to Jester and Nott, and took a few steps forward. Glancing from the side, I spotted Toya. The little girl was asleep, peacefully in the Toad’s arms.

“Toya’s asleep, he’s cradling her.” I whispered.

“We could talk to her? But if we wake her up he’s going to be mad. I guess we have no choice, we should talk to her. She’s a dwarf? Do you speak Dwarvish?”

“No, I don’t.” Jester shook her head.

“No.” I said. 

“Maybe she speaks Common. We’ll be fine. She’s a circus person.”

I sighed, weighing our options. Would she even speak to us, if all went okay? I didn’t want to go back and get Mollymauk to act as our go between.

“…Fine, screw it, let’s go.” I agreed. Nott fist-pumped the air.

“Let’s sit down on the ground and look non-threatening! Like we’re having a tea party.” Jester said, sitting down. Nott moved to fix her hair. When we were all settled, Jester began to call to her. 

“Toya! Toya, wake up!”

“Wakey wakey!” Nott echoed.

I tensed as the Toad’s breathing stopped. The Toad’s flesh made a squeaking sound as it rubbed against itself, head curling to look back at us, mouth ajar. Rows of teeth gleamed in the dim tent light, a drop of drool falling to the ground not far from us.

“What. You. Want?”

“We’re here to talk to Toya.” Jester said, the picture of calm. For all I had been concerned watching Nott and Jester sneak off, moments like this reminded me of how capable Jester could be when it was necessary. 

There was a small yawn. The Toad turned with surprising silence, allowing us to see Toya. She sat up, still half-asleep.

“What’s happening?” She yawned.

“Hi!” Jester said.

“Hi!”

“Sorry to disturb your slumber.” Nott squeaked.

“Hi.” I said, quietly. She took her braids in hand and held them closer to her body, almost on a reflex. She looked even younger now than she had during the show.

“Well?” She asked, voice cracking.

“Do you recognize us from the other night? Last night?” Nott asked.

“I don’t remember, I got scared.”

“It was scary.” Jester agreed. Then she perked up, “You have a really pretty voice.”

“Thank you.”

“Did you notice how when you sang that a dude turned into a zombie?”

I let my head fall forward at Jester’s lack of tact. Luckily, Toya chuckled.

“I did. It was really scary! I didn’t like it at all. I didn’t do that, did I?”

“Probably not.” Jester said.

“If you don’t know if you did, you didn’t.” I said. I didn’t know if this kid was lying, but she seemed genuine to me.

“Has it happened before, or was that–“ Nott trailed off. Toya shook her head.

“No. The guards are saying I probably did that, they’re saying I might have done that.”

I cocked my head a little, noticing how different her voice was. When she sang, it was pure, angelic, mature. Now her voice sounded crackly, like she had damaged it from singing too much. It was a startling shift to happen in a single day—I wondered if her voice was always that way.

“Do you sing all the time, Toya?” Jester asked, obviously wondering the same.

“I sing a lot. It’s what keeps me alive, it’s what gets me money.”

“We get that.” I nodded, “You do what works best.”

“Was that the same song you always sing?” Nott asked.

“Yeah. It’s the one song I know.”

“Did it feel the same coming out of you or was it different?”

“It felt the same.”

“What language is it?” Jester asked.

“It’s an old dwarven tune.” _Yeah, that checks out._ “My mother taught it to me before she passed.”

“What does it mean?”

“It’s a tale of the angels and how they came from the realms beyond of the gods. They granted each to us our sparks of life.”

“When you were singing, did you hear any other sounds or words that someone else was saying?” Nott asked.

“No, not beyond the ordinary. Then I saw that poor man just start tearing through people. I got scared and Kylre helped me.” She reached up and patted the Toad, who grunted in appreciation.

“How did you and Kylre meet?” Jester asked.

“They brought me into the circus. I was up in a city north of here, far north of the Marrow Valley and I was just on the streets singing. And this carnival came by and I met Gustav and he invited me to join and that’s how I met Kylre and I met all these wonderful people.”

I felt myself calm at her story. She reminded me of a younger me--perhaps a luckier one--though it was hard to know. But still, our tales were similar. Someone took us in, brought us into a group of people, and helped us grow.

“Has anyone new come around and talked to you?”

“No.”

“Asked you to do anything? It’s so strange.”

“Man, we suck at this.” Jester sighed.

“No, we’re really good.” Nott comforted her.

“The newest people we’ve had are Mollymauk and Yasha.” Toya said. My attention piqued at this. We’d been told Yasha was new, but Mollymauk flaunted his circus-folk culture like he’d been here his whole life.

“They’re new?” Jester asked, equally surprised.

“Comparatively. Mollymauk’s been here almost two years now.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“He came after I did. We both found our voice together.” I leaned forward. _Found their voice?_ “I was very scared and he wasn’t talking and together we helped each other learn to have fun again.”

“He wasn’t talking?” I asked. She shook her head.

“He didn’t say a lot when we found him, and then he didn’t say anything for a long time. But he helped me. It was nice, to have someone who could understand. It made it less scary.”

I mulled this over, wondering what could have happened to traumatize him into silence.

“And yesterday before the show you didn’t notice anything weird, anyone creeping around the carnival, setting up anything?” Nott asked, continuing the investigation.

“No.”

“Snooping around?”

“Anybody in weird cloaks?” Jester asked.

“ _We’re_ in weird cloaks.” I said, dryly, snapping back into the conversation.

“I didn’t see anything.”

“Okay.”

“Is there anyone you think would want to destroy the carnival or hurt Gustav? Does Gustav have any enemies?” Nott asked. 

“I hope not. I know him and Ornna argue a lot, but–”

“Him and Ornna!?” Nott shot up, “It’s Ornna! Ornna’s the one. Thanks very much, we’re out of here!” Nott darted out of the back of the tent, Jester hot on her tail. I got up at a more leisurely pace/

“Don’t worry about them. Mollymauk is with Ornna right now, and they’re talking it out. We’re gonna find who did this. You get back to sleep, and thanks for talking to us.”

I went to leave but stopped when I heard her ask in a tiny voice,

“Is Mollymauk okay?”

I paused. 

“Yes, he’s just frustrated. He’s worried about you, and everyone in the circus. But he’s okay.”

“…Thank you.”

“Goodnight.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy! Thank you to everyone who has read so far, left kudos, commented, and bookmarked <3 I will be skipping posting this coming Friday because I will be on vacation and away from wifi. Next chapter will be up on the 28th! 
> 
> Nat 20s  
> \- Serasai rolled a Nat 20 perception check during the stakeout, but there was nothing more to perceive. 
> 
> Nat 1s  
> \- None


	9. A Show of Scrutiny - Part 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, Nott, Jester, and Serasai had found a potential lead in the case...

I left the tent quietly, shutting the flap behind me. Beginning the investigation, everybody had been acting so light-hearted. Without any worry for my own life on the line, knowing I could negotiate out or at worst escape the prison, the stress hadn't set in until we'd come back to the circus. I tried to push it out of my mind as I turned around, seeing Nott and Jester waiting for me.

“We’ve solved the case!” Jester said, taking my hand, excitedly.

“We’ve connected the dots!” Nott declared.

“You haven’t connected anything.” I argued.

_“I’ve connected them!”_

“I think we should check the last tent before we head back, just in case!” Jester said, calming slightly.

“Okay! Just so we know it’s Ornna.” Nott said. I gave up on arguing.

“Let’s go.”

Nott and Jester, maybe because of all their excitement, made their way to the tent much easier than I did—practically dragging me along at the end.

“Any evil?” Nott asked, as Jester clutched her holy symbol.

“I’m sensing it…” Jester’s shoulders fell, “No fucking evil!”

“It’s Ornna! We know who it is! We know who the killer is!” Nott was practically bouncing up and down. We snuck back to the other tent, easily dodging the guard Jester had Charmed earlier.

Jester rushed through the flap, “It’s Ornna!”

“Ornna, you have a lot of explaining to do!” Nott rolled in behind her. I lifted the flap and ducked inside.

“Shut up!” Beau hissed at Nott. Beau had no way of knowing the guard outside had been duped by Jester’s magic.

“For the record, they’re jumping to conclusions.” I said. Nott continued, unperturbed.

“We’ve talked to Toya. She knows it’s you who did this!”

“We know you guys are in a fight all the time.” Jester said.

“You’re the one behind the whole plot! You did it!”

_“You!”_

The Knot sisters looked alarmed, inching closer to one another.

“Ornna? Is it you?...Did you kill that guy?” They asked. Ornna looked between everyone, anger growing.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about! What the fuck is this? Who the fuck are you!”

“Why did you turn that guy into a zombie?” Jester asked.

“Who do you work for!” Nott demanded. Mollymauk floundered, looking between everyone, then concentrating on Ornna’s mounting anger.

“Ornna, _Ornna_.” He reached out, trying to calm her.

“To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what’s going on.” Ornna said, “Y'all just came in here, started throwing accusations at me. Gustav got arrested. Bosun got arrested. Molly got arrested--I’m glad you got off that. But to be perfectly honest, this whole thing’s a shit show. And the circus is probably not going to be the same after this.”

She looked frustrated, and _pissed_ , but she didn’t seem to be lying.

“I think she’s telling the truth.” Jester muttered.

“Ornna, you might as well come clean, this is classic you.” Mollymauk said, borderline sarcastically. Ornna shot him a warning look.

_“Molly.”_

“I’m just trying to–“

“Fuck you.”

“Oh, fuck you, too. It’s no secret that Ornna and Gustav have their differences, but this is ridiculous. I mean, she knows damn well that half the circus would leave if he got fucking arrested and died.” Mollymauk defended. Ornna looked between us.

“You’re for real worried about this?” Ornna asked, exasperated. “You really think who it could be? Let’s play.” She settled into her seat, collecting herself. “Gustav: he’s an idiot. But he’s not a murderer. Bosun: bit of a dick. But he’s a stand up fella. Toya: absolute doll. Couldn’t hurt a fly. Mona and Yuli: They’re cunts. But they’re not going to kill anyone. Desmond’s a weird fellow. There’s something dark in his past; you can see it in his melancholy.”

“But this is not his style.” Mollymauk argued. But Nott was already on it;

“It’s Desmond! _Let’s go to his tent!”_

“Not again—” I moved to block Nott as Mollymauk reached out and grabbed her by the back of her cloak.

"There’s some untrustworthy intelligence in those lizard eyes of that devil.” Ornna continued, unbothered. Jester nodded.

“I did get a very evil kind of vibe off him.” She agreed. Molly looked over to her, questioning. 

“What do you mean ‘evil kind of vibe’?”

Jester shrugged.

“Well, I mean, he’s a fiend.”

“He’s _what?”_

“The devil toad guy. He’s a fiend.”

Mollymauk sputtered.

“That’s just a name. It’s not actually, like, real thing. That just–“

“Jester cast Detect Good and Evil, we were checking the tents.” I said, realization dawning.

There was silence as the Circus folk looked at each other, unreadable expressions on their faces

“…You guys _know_ he’s a fiend, right?” Jester asked.

_They didn’t._

Through the stunned silence, Ornna spoke first.

“He’s supposed to be lizardfolk.” She murmured.

“What do you–“

_“It’s the lizard man!”_

Mollymauk grabbed Nott fully and pushed her into the ground, holding her against the dirt and shushing her.

“ _Shhshhshh not yet_.”

“We’re cracking this case wide open!” Nott chirped, seemingly unbothered that she’d been taken down in a span of a second.

“A bit dramatic, but can’t argue results.” I finally said, wide-eyed from Molly’s move.

Suddenly, from outside the tent we heard a voice yelling out.

“Damon? _Damon!?”_

Silence.

Jester peeked outside the tent, the group of us rushing to join her. Outside, the guards were flat on the ground, gurgling—veins bulging and _moving_ as if something were crawling inside them.  

Beau pushed past us and ran toward the nearest guard, stopping short as his throat split open and began transforming into the zombie creature we’d fought before.

“Oh no! We have to fight them.” Jester cried. Beau pushed us back inside.

“Yeah, but get under the tent! We can get the drop!”

Just as Beau is pushing us inside, I spot Caleb running our way, Fjord on his tail.

“Girls, we’re not supposed to be here.” I heard Molly speak, turning to see him addressing the Knot Sisters, “Can you help us handle this?”

“Fuck no!”

Mollymauk sighed heavily.

“We’ll do what we can. If something goes wrong, nudity usually works.”

I didn’t have the energy to laugh as the sound of the mutated guards drew closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very short chapter because this is where Episode 2 ends. Thank God. My vacation away was a very geeky trip-a LARP, and the LARP drop is real. Luckily had almost all of this pre-written. Thanks for suffering through the short chapter! Hope some of you enjoyed the Buzzfeed Unsolved reference.
> 
> Edit: I am forced to take a break on this story as some life situations have cropped up, but I will be continuing. For my own ease of writing—as this isn’t my only project underway—future chapters will likely be shorter. Around 3000 words rather than 5000. 
> 
> Nat 20s:  
> \- None
> 
> Nat 1s:  
> \- None


	10. The Midnight Chase - Part 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we last left off, the group was gearing up to fight the recently zombified guards at the circus...

I could hear the approaching footsteps of the guards, and took a place closer to the entrance of the tent, at Beau’s side. My double-bladed scimitar was drawn and held defensively in front of me as I readied to strike.

We could hear the footsteps of the zombies rushing near us. The monsters startled the guards’ horses, who let out a loud whinny and took off, dashing away from the circus.  

“Damn it!” Caleb swore. Beau turned to Jester, Molly, and I.

“Fucking– we probably shouldn’t kill crownsguard, even if it’s a zombie. Should we go after the toad?”

“We should probably kill the zombies because anybody that gets bitten by a zombie turns into another zombie!” Jester whispered.

“I don’t want to be a guard killer—"

“ _I don’t want to be a fucking zombie_.” Molly argued. 

“Doesn’t matter if they were guards—they’re not anymore!” I agreed.

Beau ran out of the tent, rushing to the nearest zombie. She swung her staff at his knees, trying to sweep him. A crack of wood and a clang of metal sounded off as the guard’s metal armor halted the blunt attack. The creature’s burning red eyes turned sharply to Beau.

“You fucking broke my stick!” Beau yelled, elbowing the creature in the face. The hit landed, the creature’s unhinged jaw partially dislodging, swaying from the blow. Beau swung a punch at his face and the creature caught her fist mid-punch, dragging her forward to bite her arm. Without control of its jaw, the bite wasn’t effective.   

I darted forward to the same creature, flanking it. I swung down on the back of its knees, hacking halfway through. With a spin, I sliced with the other side of my scimitar, causing the creature to buckle to the ground, struggling to keep upright and dropping Beau’s arm in the process.

A white ball of light crashed past me and into the creature’s shoulder. It rears back from the hit, ice shards coalescing around the outside of the armor, the impact almost burning cold as mist rises like smoke from the wound. The creature’s angered hissing becomes a high pitched screech as the ice spreads over its body. The weakened knees and the ice on its upper body causes it to topple forward, motionless and silenced.

“Fuck yeah.” I said, already looking to the next zombie.

As soon as I set my eyes on it, Mollymauk was there, scimitars spinning deftly. He slammed both blades simultaneously into the side of the creature, cutting a v-shape into the upper torso, its arms hanging limply by strands of gore, black sand spilling from its wounds.

The creature lunged wildly at Molly, its bulging red eyes suddenly black as thick tears of blood began to spill down its sunken face. In its rush, the creature swung wide and Molly was able to duck out of the way. The creature’s arms swung loosely, slamming into Molly as the creature turned around, throwing Molly to the ground.

“Ow.”

“Shit shit shit!” I heard Nott hiss behind me as she ran past. She fired a crossbow bolt, piercing through the creature’s chest. The bolt was left stuck inside of it, sticking out the other side. 

Fjord charged past us to the barely surviving zombie. He flipped his falchion in hand so it was pommel up. It began to glow with black, thick energy. As it powered up it began to crackle with bolts of purple lashing out. The Eldritch Blast leaped from Fjord’s falchion to the zombie, pushing it back a step as it hit. Its armor breastplate was dented inwards from the blast. 

Fjord looked around at us, wildly, “We need to drop this fucker and get the hell out of dodge!”

Beau nodded, vaulting off the corpse of the zombie we had defeated and leaping down next to the other. Beau slammed her staff onto the zombie’s head, denting the creature’s helmet in and further disfiguring its face. 

“Ugh, die!”

Beau roundhouse kicked the creature in the face, its neck snapping back and hanging down. The creature tried to snarl, but its ripped windpipe caused it to make a horrible choking sound.

I copied Beau’s move, vaulting off of the creature at my feet and landing at her side. I brought my scimitar down—not unlike she did—but this time aiming for its opened neck. The creature hobbled, causing me to miss as it turned to growl at me. I came down with the other end of my scimitar and sliced its head cleanly off.

It fell to the ground with a wet thump, its choking sounds intensifying as the body wobbled. I stabbed it again with my staff, tipping the lifeless body over backwards. It fell to the ground and immediately began disintegrating into black sand and inky-looking acid.

“Fucking A.” I breathed, forcing myself to relax my shoulders, “Now we know to go for the head.”

I saw Mollymauk in the corner of my eye begin to push himself to his feet. I walked over and held out a hand, helping him yank himself upright.

“Ooh! Hold on! I may have a healer’s kit!” Jester rushed out of the tent towards us.

“It’s not too bad.” Molly said, adjusting his shoulders. He lolled his head around, cracking his neck. It sounded painful, but he looked unphased—however, I noticed a splatter of blood on the side of his neck.

Jester was pulling out all of her items—most of which were art supplies and pastries.

“You have a six pack of donuts, but you don’t have a healer’s kit in there? And you’re the cleric? I’m confused.” Beau commented.

I reached into my alchemy pouch and pulled out a Healing Drought.

“ _I’m_ the cleric?” Jester said, “What is this? I’ve never traveled with a bunch of people that I thought would die in front of me, okay? I never needed a healer’s kit before.”

I handed it wordlessly to Mollymauk. He took the bottle, recognizing it from the earlier battle, and downed it without a word.

“Well, congratulations, you’re the cleric now.”

Beau held out a Healer’s Kit to Jester. Jester gasped loudly, her eyes wide.

“You have a healer’s kit!? Oh my gosh. I’ve always wanted one of these for so long!”

“Here, it’s a gift. Congratulations-on-you-being-in-a-new group gift.”

“ _Yes!--_ How do I use this, though?”

“You can check it out back at the room. Gave Molly a potion that should tide him over.” I called.

“Besides having the wind knocked out of me, I’m fine.” He agreed, trying to hand me the empty vial back. It disappeared in his hands, which he seemed momentarily surprised about before a clear look of curiosity overtook him.

“If you have a bandaid in there though, he did get a small open wound to the neck.” I said, pointing at my own neck. Jester nodded and began rummaging through the kit.

“Not a concern.” Molly waved it off. He still took the bandaid Jester held out to him.

“Great, now let’s get out of here before we get blamed again.” I said, suddenly rushing the group.

“Where’s Nott?” Caleb asked, looking around. We saw Nott exit from Toya and the Demon Toad’s old tent, Frumpkin rushing up to her.

Beau dropped down and started searching the dead guards.

“Serasai is right, we should get out of here soon though because guards could be coming.” Jester warned.

“Did anybody see what happened or where that hellish toad went?” Fjord asked. Jester nodded.

“It jumped off that way.” She pointed.

“You saw it?”

“Yeah.”

New voices caught our attention as the Knot twins emerged from their tent.

“Where are the guards, the rest of them? Are more coming or is this all of them?” One asked.

“There’s probably more coming, I would think.” Jester said.

“We can’t be here.” Fjord said.

“Do you think we should run?” The other Knot sister asked.

“We should hide the evidence.” Beau suggested.

 _“How?”_ I gestured around. Their bodies left clear traces of black along the ground.

“I don’t know!...they’ve got a longsword each, six gold pieces, and four silver pieces.” Beau said, standing.

“Ooh!” Jester went wide-eyed over the money.

“We shouldn’t take the longswords. Hard to hide and could probably be traced back as belonging to crownsguard.” I rattled off the warning instinctively.

“Does anyone even know how to use a longsword?” Jester questioned.

“I do.” I said.

“Oh.”

“I don’t want to get these folk in any more trouble. How far is it from here to the lake?” Fjord said, getting us back on track, “I say we could drag them and throw them into the lake to avoid suspicion on the carnival.”

“The carnival is lakeside, and the crownsguard are looking for a scapegoat. We’ll be under suspicion either way.” Molly said, bitterly.

I looked around at the group, making sure everyone was together. This was starting to feel like herding cats. Speaking of cats, our cat-lover is missing.

“Where’s Caleb?” I asked. Beau looked up.

“I thought he was with Fjord.”

“He was.” Fjord said, looking around, “Nott, have you seen Caleb?”

“He was right here, looking for Nott earlier.” I sighed, annoyed. Speaking of…

“No, not yet. Is he okay? Did he live? Did everyone live?” Nott asked, looking around wildly.

“Yeah, nobody took any hard hits.” Beau shrugged.

“You got his little cat right there on your shoulder.” Fjord pointed. Nott looked over to Frumpkin, almost surprised.

“Oh yes I do, hi. Yeah, so he can’t be far.” Nott nodded.

“We need to get out of here. We need to follow after that toad.”

“Okay. There’s horses around here, let’s steal them!”

“…That’s actually not a terrible idea.”

Jester clapped her hands together, perking up.

“Ooh good, we can put Molly on the back of the wagon. That way we can get him out of here. And the guards’ bodies, too! That way we can drop them off away from the carnival and people won’t think it’s related!”

“Oh my god, you are so speaking my language.” Beau breathed, eyes wide. Jester smiled.

“I’m a very wise person.” She nodded, sagely.

“It could work! Let’s do it!” I said.

“Who wants to help me with the one totally charred body?” Fjord asked, already moving towards the corpses.

“I’ll do it!” Jester said, skipping over.

The rest of us watched as the adorable tiefling lifted the charred body easily. I felt my jaw go slack, shocked at the impressive show of strength. Even Fjord looked surprised.

“…Shit. Never would have known.” He muttered.

Beau grabs the other body and I move to help her. Ornna comes up to us and assists in throwing it into a cart, while the Knot sisters watched from a distance.

“Might I point out real quick,” Nott began, “Up to this point we are fugitives who haven’t committed a crime. But starting now we will be fugitives who have committed crimes. Are we sure we want to do this?”

“I mean it’s either that or leave the carnival and take the fall for what is two dead crownsguard.” Fjord said, shrugging.

“Being treated like criminals isn’t much of an incentive to not _be_ criminals.” I muttered, leaning against the cart.

“That’s a telling insight.”

I jumped, whipping around to see Molly smirking over my shoulder, having already been in the back of the cart without me even noticing.

“Scared the shit out of me, stop grinning about it!” I shouted, annoyed. Mollymauk just smiled wider.

“You’re a little jumpy, aren’t you?” I saw his tail flick as he asked. I went to say something, but stopped again as Caleb appeared at my side.

“We going?” He asked.

“Yeah, Beau is hooking up the horses.” I explained, shooting Molly another look as I spoke. He looked away from me quickly and I followed his eyes to see the Knot sisters running southeast.

“They’re outies.” Jester called.

“Should I shoot them?” Nott questioned, holding up her crossbow.

“They’re okay.” Molly said, and Nott lowered her crossbow. Molly vaulted over the side of the kart and pulled out his scimitar. He headed over towards the horses and started riling them up, getting ready to go.

Beau sat atop the cart, reins in hand, as the rest of us began to pile in. I began covering the bodies in tarps and piles of rope that were already in the cart, as I saw Ornna walk up to us.

“I think I should stay here.” She said.

“Are you sure?” Jester asked, concerned.

“What, and be a fugitive?” Ornna shook her head, “I can explain what happened. Hopefully.”

“What are you going to say to them?”

“Exactly what happened. The same thing that turned these guards ran off and you’re hoping to stop it.”

“Don’t say that we were here!” Jester warned, “Don’t mention we were here. That’s pretty important, I think.”

“Yeah?” Ornna looked at the group of us.

“You couldn’t see us in the low light, but they chased after whatever caused this.” Fjord said. Ornna nodded slowly.

“Okay. I can do that. I can’t leave Gustav and Bosun in prison to take the fall for this.”

“We’ll get them out of it.” Jester promised.

Caleb looked over the battlefield.

“Would you have the abilities to burn these things up the way we did? Are you capable? Could you have killed these things? Is that believable for people who know you?”

“I’m quite good with fire. That’s not entirely impossible.” Ornna said, unphased by Caleb’s rapid-fire questions.

“Ornna, is there anything else that you can think of that could possibly help us?” Beau asked, “Like why this toad decided to freak out right now? Anything that comes to mind before we go chase after your mess.”

“Any previous episodes of this kind?” Fjord agreed. Ornna shook her head.

“No. Never trusted anything that looked the way Kylre did.” My eyes narrowed, but I said nothing, “Everyone seemed to put a lot of trust in him. Gustav did. Toya did. I don’t know if this is still a misunderstanding, but–” She pointed back to the leftover carnage on the battlefield, “Just get this figured out, please. This is all I have left.”

She stood alone in the middle of the empty encampment, back turned on us as she looked at the ripped tents and ashes.

“…We’ll try and find some evidence that will exonerate you and we’ll return.” Fjord said.

“We need to find evidence to exonerate _us.”_ Jester sighed.

“Sorry that we thought that you did it! Briefly!” Nott apologized. Ornna shrugged.

“It’s okay. It’s hard for some folks to trust carnival folk. Just as hard as it is for some folks to trust little green folk.”

Nott shrunk down into the cart, looking sheepish.

“We should really get to stepping.” Fjord said.

“Let’s get moving then!” I called.

Fjord hopped on to one of the horses and began following the road as best we could in the direction the devil toad had hopped in. I saw Molly give Ornna a nod goodbye before slipping down into the cart. I was sitting next to Jester and Caleb, Nott and Molly across from us.

“Where are we going?” Nott asked.

“In the direction the toad leapt.” Fjord’s voice came from up ahead.

“Are we really chasing the toad right now? We did just fight a lot of zombies.” Jester said.

“Maybe we can at least find him, stake him out.” Beau suggested.

“I mean, we are all at pretty good health.” I mused. But I’d only have two more Healing Droughts to use.

“We might need to play it by ear.” Fjord said. Jester nodded.

“Fjord, I’m trusting you!” Jester declared. Fjord chuckled.

“If it’s too dangerous, we’ll stand down. How about that?”

“Okay!”

“Also I have a cat.” Caleb said.

I raised a brow, most of the party equally confused.

“Yeah, it’s cute.” Jester said, breaking the silence.

“That’s not what I mean. If we catch up to them, my cat can follow and I can watch.”

“Ohhh.” I hummed, understanding.

“Yeah, you blanked out there for a second.” Fjord said.

“If we find them, then we assign Frumpkin to the case and I will lean against a tree. Nott will keep watch over me and we will know where it goes.”

“We’re going with them, then?” Nott asked.

“Yeah, let’s follow the direction that the toad went.” Jester said.

“Cats love toads.” Beau said, agreeing. I snorted.

“I like it. It’s a good plan. This is definitely not going to backfire. Let’s go!”

//

The horses picked up and began heading northward towards the Ustaloch. Once we were far enough away from the carnival, we dropped the charred bodies off. Fjord and Caleb set them out so it looked like they were on patrol when they had been turned into zombies.

Before long we reached the southern edge of the Ustaloch. I could see the muddy shore and the retreating edge of the water. One of the moons shone down on the Ustaloch, only a slight breeze causing sound besides our cart’s movement.

Beau pointed out into the water.

There was a boat that was about a hundred feet out on the water. There were two figures that were in the boat. I couldn’t see the other end of the lake with how large it was, almost looking like the ocean if not for its brown color. There was a giant mass in the center of the lake, the exact shape was difficult to make out in the low lighting.

“An island?” I questioned.

“Or a giant toad sitting in the water?” Jester suggested.

“That would be a very big toad.” Molly said.

“It’s far away on the horizon, the little bump? And there’s two figures on a boat about a  
hundred yards out.” Beau said.

“Can they see us?” Jester asked, nervously.

“Not _well_.” I shrugged.

“We’re going to have to ditch this wagon anyway because we’ve got tracks.” Fjord pointed out.

“No time like the present?” Molly suggested.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A new update! Thank you for all the kind responses and kudos! They really inspire me to keep it going, however slow going it is.
> 
> Nat 20s:  
> \- None
> 
> Nat 1s:  
> \- None


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